Learning to Live Advent

The first week in Advent – unbelievable!! And that means Christmas is a mere 25 days away!

My husband and I have enjoyed celebrating other liturgical feasts throughout the year as we have re-discovered our Catholic heritage – but Christmas just didn’t have the same feel to it that the other smaller feasts did. Maybe it is because Christmas is now so HUGE. Everyone celebrates Christmas, or Yule, or “Happy Holidays.” Maybe it felt different because it has just become too big. It’s doesn’t have that intimate feel to it like the Feast of the Arch Angels for example.

This year, I am making a real effort to celebrate ADVENT!! My Jessie Tree is ready to go, I’ve got my Father Lovasik book of Novenas to get ready for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, got my purple table cloth and advent wreath out… yep looks like we are ready!!

But with 5 kids, of course I want them to have a good Christmas too. I read somewhere on line (wish I could remember where) that this family gives each child only 3 gifts, because Jesus only got 3 gifts, gold, frankincense, myrrh. Surprisingly my kids were OK with this. I guess one of the blessings of living on a smaller income is that they have come to be grateful for whatever they get.

They really only want modest gifts too. My teenager asked for clothes first this year… Sigh… I remember when clothes were anathema!! And nothing fancy, pullover sweatshirts, jeans, maybe some dress pants. Son #3 wanted a big box of crayons and some coloring books. I got it for him – the biggest box of crayons I could find at Misterart.com. The other ones can’t really make up their minds. The girlie will love whatever we get her as long as it’s pink and Barbie!!

Amy Wellborn’s books for teens look good for my godchildren and I think I’ll be getting those next week.

I’m also going to de-stress and buy a lot of this online. I think my stress level goes up anywhere in the vicinity of a shopping mall.

So hopefully we can have a holy advent and a peaceful Christmas. If I can accomplish that, I’ll be doing much better