Advent

This Sunday begins one of my very favourite seasons. I love the music, the traditions, and the family time of Christmas. I also love to redecorate, so adding seasonal decor to our home makes me feel good.

It will be our first Christmas on our own. LK won't be planning and practicing for many services, we won't be madly dashing from services to visit family, and we won't be trolling the malls looking for the perfect gift at the last minute. Some of those changes will be very welcome. Some will be hard. I don't miss LK working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but do already miss the anticipation of Christmas Day brass players at church and the excitement they brought to my worship. I don't miss the drive on Christmas Day, but will miss the gathering and laughter with family members. I hate malls in December, particularly the week before Christmas when the mood turns to barely controlled panic in shoppers' eyes. I love looking for just the right item and finding it (especially at Winners).

It is a time for us to develop traditions of our own that are meaningful to us as a family. Our first was the Santa Claus parade in Kenora last night topped off with a dinner of Chinese-Canadian buffet. It was my first parade in many years (all those years in TO and we never went to the parade), since I was a girl in Perth. It was a great parade, impressive for a town of 13 000. Both kids were entranced; Jo with the trucks and lights, Fiona with Santa (who she has decided is real). The friendly camaraderie of parents and families waiting on the sidewalks was wonderful. What a nice way to begin the season.

One of our family traditions is to put up our Christmas tree and decorations on the first Sunday of Advent. So this afternoon we pulled out the Rubbermaids filled with Christmas paraphernalia and went at it. Fiona was so excited. She loves to watch the tree go together and have lights strung along each branch. When that is done she gets to lay out the ornaments and decide which ornaments go on the tree this year. Jo was fascinated by all the sparkle and the things that swayed. He did more decorating of himself than the tree. At one point he ended up with strings of red beads looped around his body from head to toe. He was very pleased with himself.

So the house looks like Christmas and the stereo is filled with music of the season. It looks like Christmas outside with more snow gently falling. My cup runneth over with good things.