Advent

Sometimes I joke that I have been a week behind on everything since Lamb 1 was born a week early. We still haven't got out any of our Advent things-not the calendar, wreath, or books. We wait until very close to Christmas Eve to decorate our tree, so getting out the Advent things is a big deal. The Lambs love to do the Advent calendar. We have done different things each year. One year we decorated a small tree with a small ornament every day. One year we put a magnet on the refrigerator each day to make the nativity scene. One year we used a box that opened each day with a trinket. The boys can't wait until all of us are awake to do the Advent activity and see what it is.
December 1 the boys already had a Christmas party for ECFE. We sang songs like Here Comes Santa Claus. I baked Christmas cookies to serve at the Advent supper on Wednesday. Yesterday was our first Ladies Aid Christmas party (we have 3 churches). We sang Christmas carols and ate Christmas desserts. Some of the ladies began giving the Lambs their presents from them at the Ladies Aid party-they know they would appreciate something to open while we each open our gifts for the exchange, plus they get to watch the Lambs open their gifts. So yesterday, each of them opened 3 gifts.
The "last straw" for me was last night when Ram was playing some music and he chose "Once in Royal David's City." I had a fit and made him turn it off. We haven't even finished the first week of Advent for goodness sake!
On today's agenda is to finally get out our Advent stuff. I'm fighting an unending battle to try to do Advent in our home before Christmas. The one comfort I do have is the more of these extra activities that we do at the beginning of the month, the less there is to do closer to Christmas. The week of Christmas we can focus on the important part of CHRIST MASS, when we go to church as a family and especially when we are up at the Holy Communion table together.