As I work my way through the liturgical calendar this year, I hope to chronicle as much as I can about how I’m celebrating each season. Read Advent Week 1 here.
Week 2
Church for the second week of Advent (PEACE) included “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”, and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.
We’ve made it through one week of a boring-yet-hopeful tree in the corner of the living room. I’ve actually liked seeing the bare branches, and it’s been a little easier to reach to add water without knocking over any ornaments. Not that I’ve needed to water it more than once, as it’s set in a five-gallon bucket…
It was a beautiful sunshine-y Sunday afternoon, so while my youngest daughter napped and my oldest daughter played outside with a neighbor, my middle daughter and I strung lights on the tree. I had debated for a few days whether I would prefer white lights or colored lights, and after simply searching Pinterest for “Christmas tree” and scrolling and scrolling, made my decision.
(we’ll save white lights for the icicles on the outside of the house)
Did you know it’s recommended to use 100 bulbs per 1-1.5 feet of tree height? That meant 600-800 bulbs on our tree. But I’m cheap. I only bought two rolls of 200 lights each.
And I looooove it. (maybe because they’re LED lights and extra bright, we don’t need as many??)
The girls were excited to finally light two candles in our Advent wreath today. I changed out last week’s figures of “Mary” and the Angel of Hope, for Joseph (from the Nativity set) and a pregnant figure.
Peace on earth. The light of the world is coming.
Other activities this week included our last GEMS Girls’ Club meeting until January (where I actually had a relatively UNpeaceful night, filling in last minute for the 1st/2nd grade teacher who couldn’t be there), and our traditional Saturday night popcorn-and-smoothies-movie-night (we decided on Rudolph this week).
Week 3
It was fairly easy to choose music for the Sunday morning service featuring JOY: “Joy to the World”, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Angels from the Realms of Glory”, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”, “Joyful Joyful We Adore You”.
While my girls have been antsy to put up ornaments on our tree, I’ve actually loved how slowly we’ve been decorating it. By doing something new each Sunday, it’s helped the tree not to fade into the background as something we’ve just gotten used to seeing.
Once Penny went down for her afternoon nap, I pulled out the box of ornaments. I had no idea how many would fit, or if we would even want more, since we’ve only had a tabletop 4-foot tree in the past. This year we had lots more space to cover!
But I also wanted to be picky about what pieces went up. So I started pulling ornaments out of the box and putting them on the table, and the girls took turns hanging them on the tree. I purposely looked for ones that had special meaning to us and our family, ones that I could point to and tell a story about.
I was surprised by how many I left in the box. Pieces we had collected over the years in miscellaneous ways, and just didn’t seem to fit with the others on the tree this year.
I can tell exactly where their eye level is… hahaha
After the girls went outside to play, I did a little rearranging. 🙂 And when I stepped back and looked at the tree, with its lights off (see photo at the beginning of this post), I actually was filled with joy. So many memories were featured there, telling the story of our family.
Still no star, and still no tree skirt… we have to save something for next week!
I’m running out of ideas for the Advent wreath… this week I simply added the animals from the nativity set (“they’ve arrived in Bethlehem!”). And though I’d rather wait until Christmas Eve, next Sunday will probably be the full nativity, including baby Jesus.
Pretty in pink for JOY Sunday
This has been the last week of school for the year. My husband has had some half-days, giving exams to his high school students, and my girls’ days have been full of parties and pajama days (and a third-grade grammar test). They’ve come home tired but full each day. We even managed to get a babysitter and have a date night, out to my husband’s staff Christmas party.
I’ve finally finished getting last-minute gifts (stocking candy, teacher gift cards, books for cousins), and have pulled out the suitcases for an extended-family trip we’ll soon be taking. I’ve been busy at church planning services and printing bulletins for December 23, 24, and 30.
Yet all along I haven’t felt frantic about it. I’ve seen the calendar moving along (how are there only 10 days left in the year?!) but have felt content keeping our activities to a minimum. I’ve said no to events (ladies party at church) and no to activities (cookie/treat making). We’ve actually been home most weeknights, ending with reading by the beautiful tree and lighting our Advent candles.
It truly has been a hopeful, peaceful, joyful couple of weeks. The anticipation is building toward Christmas Day (I can’t wait to give my family their gifts!!), but for the first time I feel ready for it instead of stressed about it.
Do I have things I’d still do differently next year? Absolutely. Are there things I’ve chosen to do (or not do) this year that I plan to carry into future Advent seasons? YES.
As Advent is winding down, are there things you’ve discovered about your own activities this month that either 1) bring peace and joy and you’re excited to continue in the future, or 2) have been too stressful and you want to reevaluate how they can change next year?
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