Advent Activities

“The decisions we make in moments of difficulty are never solely forced on us by the situations we are in by what our hearts think and desire in the middle of them.” 

 ~PD Tripp

Starting each day during Advent in my blue "throne" next to the Advent wreath, adding songs like Meredith Andrew's "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" to our family's playlist, soaking up Biola's Advent Project as well as Loyola's art and reflection on Advent themes, and pondering the state of my heart.  

Adding new books alongside old favorites to the basket.

Making St. Nicholas purse cookies to share with neighbors.

Continuing with school while ticking the days off until the older siblings arrived home.

Cellotrio enjoying a special evening for the rare treat of supper at a restaurant before attending a live performance of Handel's Messiah (with one of our friends singing the bass solos).

Leading a homeschool group to a student matinee of The Nutcracker.

Attending the public school orchestra concert to cheer on my favorite "orch dorks" while watching and listening to a livestream with one ear bud while my JBU kids performed their own concert three hours away.

Advent Countdown

 “We must first know that our hearts are created for allegiance. They are also designed to crave full satisfaction, and so we naturally give our allegiance to what we believe will meet our craving for that fullness – what we often call peace and joy. In other words, the form and function of our lives fall in line behind our hearts’ greatest allegiance. We act according to what we love and value most. We give ourselves over to what we love and value most.” ~Christine Hoover, “With All Your Heart”

Our Advent tags began the countdown toward Christmas, and some of our familiar favorites made their much anticipated appearances.  Fondue as we celebrated Jesus' willingness to come immerse Himself in our world:  “And the Word (Christ) became flesh, and lived among us; and we [actually] saw His glory, glory as belongs to the [One and] only begotten Son of the Father, [the Son who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, who is] full of grace and truth (absolutely free of deception).” John 1:14 AMP

Mugs with family pictures: “Woe to you, [self-righteous] scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion & robbery & self-indulgence (unrestrained greed). You [spiritually] blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and of the plate [examine & change your inner self to conform to God’s precepts], so that the outside [your public life & deeds] may be clean also.” Matthew 23:25-26 AMP

We used our weekends for "Serving Saturdays" and Katherine picked out donations for one of our local food pantries,

and we found an Angel Tree offering the opportunity to help out the Salvation Army.

“[Salvation] is a process that is worked out in the intimacy of our hearts and revealed in the transformation of our mundane daily lives. Though we do not, indeed cannot, initiate the process of healing and wholeness – it remains forever a gift – we do need to engage in actions that foster and celebrate God’s lifegiving power within and among us.”

~Norman Wirzba, “Living the Sabbath”

Matching Christmas pajamas that help us stay connected no matter where we live: “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”

Col. 3:1214 MSG

Advent Begins

If we are going to discern "what is best" - what is "excellent", what really matters, what is of ultimate importance - Paul tells us that the place to start is by attending to our loves.  There is a very different model of the human person at work here.  Instead of the rationalist, intellectualist model that implies, "You are what you think," Paul's prayer hints at a very different conviction: "You are what you love."

~James K.A. Smith "You Are What You Love"

This Advent, we focused on a very nontraditional topic, our hearts.  Beginning with Shane and Shane's "Above All Else", our quotes and music all pointed to keeping our hearts soft and responding to the Lord's work in our lives.

 

We also read "The Advent of the Lamb of God" by Russ Ramsey over breakfast most mornings and found some fun breakfast recipes (like pumpkin chocolate muffins) to add to our rotation.

Autumn Fire and Gratitude

There is a good reason why in his second letter to Timothy, Paul listed ingratitude (ungratefulness) right in the middle of such evil companions as abusiveness, heartlessness, brutishness, and treachery (2 Timothy 3:1-5).  Because that's where it belongs.  Ingratitude is no less heinous a sin than these other evil traits.  In fact, so powerful is the influence exerted by ingratitude, that when we displace it with gratitude, we will likely find a multitude of other sins dislodged from our lives.  Notice how Paul instructed the Ephesians: "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving" (Ephesians 5:4).

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss, "Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy"

One of my favorite things about coming back to America is indulging in the many ways the seasons delight my senses.

It's easy to have a grateful heart when the world is this beautiful and everything tastes of cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg and the mornings are crisp and cool.

I'm soaking it all up in the storehouse of my memory for the next time we are living in the Solomon Islands and time seems to stand still.

More November

In the middle of November, several special events converged.

Benjamin presented his senior recital, full of his incredible compositions and the research behind them.

Two senior recitals in one year gave us so much to celebrate!

Grandparents came to cheer him on, too.

He also had lots of friends from the school and the community come support him.

That weekend we also celebrated Hannah's birthday a few days early.

We're super excited about her joining our family in July.

(And we had a ton of fun picking out the perfect dress for the wedding!!)

Into November

Heading into November, we joined our neighbors in offering candy to trick-or-treaters.

 

We also drove to JBU to support our soon to be daughter-in-law Hannah as she performed as the Baker's Wife in "Into the Woods",

and to cheer on Benjamin's sound design and Olivia's stage hand camoflagued tree!

One of our favorite things to do is to help break down the stage the day after the show finishes,

we're honored that the cast and crew would allow us to help.

Almost always, as we drive out of town, we stop for a pint (or two) of ice cream at one of the most delicious homemade ice cream stores we've ever discovered, Pure Joy.

As November continued, I enjoyed subbing for the music classes in our secondary schools.  What a great bunch of teachers and students!