Tis the Season!

This weekend might be called the official kick-off to our Christmas. It's the first Sunday of Advent, and so we light the first candle in our advent wreath. This morning, at church our family did the first Advent reading and lit the first purple candle. This Advent, feels much more reflective and peaceful than years past.

Last night, we took the girls into Moose Jaw to see the Santa Claus parade. We arrived about 30 minutes early. This year, we had really great weather for it, hovering around -2. In years past, we've almost frozen watching the parade. The girls had a hard time waiting for the parade to start, which is pretty normal for how young they are. But once the lights started flashing, they were fine. Chloe is quite aware who Santa is, so they were both very excited to see him.

Afterwards, we headed to the Alliance church, which, for the past couple of years, has put on Bethlehem live. It's basically a live version of the nativity. It starts in the church sanctuary. As visitors arrive, you are put into one of the 12 families of Israel. Then you wait for your family to be called by the Roman guards to journey to Bethlehem. There are a few twists and turns throughout the dark halls of the church; then you head outside, into the cold, dark night. I'm not sure Chloe quite knew what was happening. But Rebekah was excited to be on our search to find the newborn baby Jesus.

We wound our way through campfires hosted by weary travellers, Roman guards. We were accosted by bandits and saved by soldiers on horse back. We journeyed through the marketplace where we were offered chickens and goats, and finally we arrived to pay our taxes to Caesar. After all of this, we arrived at the inn, but, of course, there was no room. And so we headed to the lowly stable, where we found Jesus, lying in a manger. Afterwards, we headed inside and had chocolate, goodies, and were able to catch up with friends that we haven't seen in several years.

This afternoon, after Chloe's nap, we cooked up appetizers and other goodies, and began our annual tradition of trimming the tree. Chloe absolutely loved hanging ornaments. Last year, I don't think she really put that many on, but this year she discovered the joy of tree decorating. Papa sat and handed the ornaments out, and I put the ones on the top of the tree. Glynn had the joyful task of putting on the lights last night.

Most of the ornaments ended up on the same three branches, which afterwards needed to be adjusted. We added our new ornaments that were bought at Christmas in October. Chloe and Rebekah both decorated their little trees that go in their room. There are a few decorations that still need to be put up, which we'll get to over the coming week. But for the most part, we're done!

A time to prepare

Christmas will be in full swing for our family in two weeks. However, until then, it is a time to evaluate and ponder. What matters to us most this Christmas season? How do we want to spend the days of Advent. There will likely be several parties and get togethers with friends. We'll be planning several and have several others to attend. Rebekah's birthday and our anniversary are in there as well, which makes for a busy season.

And yet, we don't want to miss what matters most. The birth of Christ, time with our family, and helping others. So now is the time for us to ponder, what should the next four weeks look like? What can we give up to help alleviate the suffering of others? How best do we help our children learn about what truly matters and their responsibility to others on this planet? None of these are simple questions.

One of the ways we seek to do this is through the Advent Conspiracy. We will buy less and give more. Our church leadership announced this morning that we will be participating in this venture throughout Advent. The money raised will go towards a project through Compassion Canada. Personally, we're World Vision people, so I'm helping to head up a campaign at our school, in which every classroom will choose, and fundraise, towards something in the WV catalogue. We will also seek to help those in our community. Glynn & I are also hoping to serve Christmas dinner at Riverside Mission in Moose Jaw.

So this season we may make gifts, instead of buying all of them, and forego buying others, all in the pursuit of a saner, more sustainable Christmas.

Catching up...whew!

Halloween has come and gone. It's hard to believe the next holiday is Christmas! For Halloween, we participated in a number of activities. In the afternoon, we went to the mall in Moose Jaw. Each store was giving out candy. The girls loved it, and the sales people loved our costumes.

We have a tradition of dressing up as a family. Each year we have a different theme, and each of us dress as a member. This year was the Wizard of Oz. Rebekah, of course, was Dorothy, Chloe the cowardly lion, Glynn the tin man, and I was the scarecrow. We hope this will become a memory that our kids will cherish. After the mall, we picked up pizza, which is another yearly tradition. It's actually about the only time of year we order pizza.

After supper, we headed out to do some trick or treating. Rebekah seemed to be wearing down quickly, and after about a street and a half she had had enough. Rebekah had a fever.

Rebekah was sick all of last week with the flu. We're not sure if it was H1N1. Chloe received her immunization for it last week. Rebekah couldn't because she was sick. However, she'll be getting her immunization this week. Chloe was also sick lastweek, as was I. I missed work Tuesday and Wednesday, which is difficult when you teach chemistry. This week is midterm week, and next week report cards.

We're finally back on top of the housework. On the weekend Glynn made a beautiful window seat storage center for our family room. There are benefits to being married to a carpenter! So he could work, I took the girls to Regina for the day. They got to enjoy a day at grandma's house, and I spent the day Christmas shopping.