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!