Advent

We have had the loveliest advent season this year. It seems like usually the advent season is filled with chaos: last minute shopping, running errands, big messes, lots of cooking, stressed out parents and sugared-up kids. Don't get me wrong, we still have a lot of all of that going on, but for some reason, this year, it all seems somewhat blissful. As I wrote before, this year for advent we are doing something special each day. I even found at the Bargain Box Thrift Store an advent calendar with little pockets for each day. It's made of felt and hangs on our wall. Each day the kids look in the pocket to see what the activity of the day is going to be. Truthfully, most of the activities are things that we do anyway this time of year. But for some reason, making that THE special event of the day really does make it special. So far we have, amongst other things, made fudge for the neighbors, watched the movie Elf (with popcorn and hot chocolate), read Christmas books, sung carols, decorated the tree and made a gingerbread house. Annalise, in particular, has really loved this time. The first thing she does when she wakes up is go to look in the pocket to see what special thing the day holds for us. It's really made the season magical for us.

The other thing that has been so magical this season is the gift-giving of my children. Annalise has been working like mad to make her Christmas gifts. She has been picking out projects and taking a lot of time to work on them. Right now she is at Grandma's, learning to cross-stitch, because she really wanted to cross-stitch a bookmark for her daddy. I'm anxious to see how she does! And today, Zachary couldn't wait to go to the toy store to choose gifts for his sisters. (He really thought we should get a babysitter for Juliette because he wanted her to be surprised. I promised him that I would face her in in the carrier so she wouldn't see what he picked.) We spent quite a long time in the store, looking up and down every row until he found just the right thing for each girl. A LOT of thought went into his choices.

It's going to be a wonderful Christmas this year, even though Annalise is not getting a Wii and Zachary is not getting every set of Star Wars Legos ever made. It will be wonderful because they will truly understand the magic of giving. How lucky they are to learn how great that can feel.