Friday Favorite Five Advent Edition

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."  Matthew 23:25

This is one of my favorite Advent tags. A few years ago, we started making an annual mug with pictures of "Meat Cheato" (that's "Team Choate" scrambled and first showed up in magnetic letters on our fridge in the village). These mugs help me review God's faithfulness to us, and there are always so many events throughout the year that I want to remember. The other fun thing about this particular tag is the special drinks that we buy to fill our mugs only at this time of year.

1) This on-the-go French press was a treat for my hubby. I loved the brilliant color and will probably borrow this travel mug frequently.

2) Land O'Lakes hot chocolate packets. Usually, we make our own hot chocolate mix, but during Advent and Christmas, we have a lot of visitors, and these delicious packets are crowd pleasers. Especially the caramel flavor :)

3) Peppermint Bark herbal tea. All this needs is a little bit of local honey!

4) Rozark Hills Coffee. A little coffee roastery in the same town where I pick up our raw milk. Makes it easy to support local businesses and get great coffee beans at the same time. We tried Frosty's Favorite and Jingle Bell Java for Advent, but usually I just get two pounds of the French roast.

5) The last favorite thing that shows up with this Advent tag is spray whipped cream. Somehow it just makes our hot drinks feel cozier and fancier.

In which we are flexible on a Serving Sunday

Last Sunday after church, I made a speedy solo grocery store trip. On the way in, I discovered Cub Scouts running a food drive and made a quick decision to be flexible with our Serving Sunday Advent tag.

I texted Katherine and Aaron, and they picked out the food items they wanted to donate. Part of the fun in the past has been seeing how close the kids could get to a certain cash dollar amount. 

I felt the nudging of that still small voice to be flexible and to donate to the Cub Scouts instead. And so we did.

Christmas Candlelight

Once again, we drove up to Northwest Arkansas, making our eagerly anticipated rest stop at the Coffee Parlor.

Attending JBU's Christmas Candlelight Service has become a beloved tradition in our family, even though this year we didn't have any Choates singing or playing.

Some of our adopted students joined us for supper of beef stew at our Air Bnb, then we all filled up a pew to enjoy the concert together.

Afterwards, we continued the tradition of stopping by Braum's for some post-concert ice cream.

And we recreated last year's full booth picture :)

The AirBnb was an unexpected oasis. We anticipated the rain that fell overnight and into Saturday morning, so I brought appropriate clothing for a slow morning walk to help me wake up after such a late Friday night.

We stayed on a farm, and the gravel path I followed ended at the Illinois River. The rain was so peaceful and gentle and the perfect way to begin the day enjoying God's creation.

A Season of Senses

Christmas is indeed a season of senses. Our eyes search for light in a season of darkness, our ears are tuned to sleighbells and choirs, we taste and smell the "for a limited time only" gingerbreads and evergreen scented candles. ~Matt Rawle, "The Redemption of Scrooge"

We certainly enjoy diving into engaging alllllll the senses during Advent and Christmas. St. Lucia's Day is a bright spot in Advent, maybe this special day is what launched Sarah into her baking creativity and competency. This year, we traded pictures of our baking from Texas and Arkansas. Olivia, too, enjoys baking and took her turn as the oldest daughter of the house on St. Lucia's Day.

As we all know, each person is unique, and Katherine wasn't thrilled about getting up early to bring us breakfast in bed :) So she and Aaron made these easy Almond Danish Swirls the night before, and I popped them in the oven when I got home from my early morning walk.

Obviously, our family enjoys making music. Performing in music ensembles together was the foundation of our friendship that led to our marriage. The sounds of Christmas include everything from The Arcadian Wild's Happy Golden Days to Paul Baloche's genious blend of carols and praise choruses to Corelli's Christmas Concerto (which we played in high school and is one of Sarah's favorite pieces for study music).

Advents Tags and Jazz Concerts

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who procalim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7

We added a new Advent tag this year that revealed Christmas socks for Katherine. This was a gift that several of our other kids received, too. I really enjoy coming up with little surprises during Advent. My young adults know to expect hand soap when they see the verse about having clean hands, but it's fun to stick in a little something they don't anticipate.

The jazz bands held their 3rd annual "Jazz Up Your Chili" cookoff, and this year we contributed chili. So many of the orchestra students participate in this fun ensemble, look at all these fabulous junior high students! What a fun night enjoying music and sampling declicious chilis while raising funds for this community program.

Advent Sweet Sabbath

 "It's not just that waiting and hope work together. They're the same thing! In other words, you don't just wait with hope or wait with faith. From a biblical perspective, to wait is to hope. To wait is to trust. To wait is to have faith." ~Mark Vroegop, "Waiting Isn't a Waste"

A dear friend gifted us this spiral Advent and Lenten wreath many years ago when The Keeping Company was just a seed in the mind of the young man who made the wreaths. We use it every year to help shape our celebrations.

Second Weekend in Advent

The second weekend in December, the Advent tag read CoHo (The City of Hope Outreach). This organization hosts a Christmas store for the community, and we have insider information! My brother works there :)

When I asked him what CoHo still needed, he told me many requests for baby dolls had come in, but only a few had been donated. Baby dolls are such a beneficial part of a child's experience. I have many sweet memories of my earliest dolls "Pink Baby" and "Orange Baby" (original names, I know), and I loved watching our children nurture their dolls. Katherine picked out these dolls to donate, and I think they are perfect! In fact, there's a large part of me that wants to get one (or two) of these dolls for little visitors to our house.

In addition to our routine weekend activities, I attended my first quinceanera. I was so excited to be invited by one of the orchestra students! She has really blossomed this year.

 

Saint Nicholas Day

With only Katherine left at home, we decided to enlist some extra help to make our traditional St. Nicholas Day cookies this year.

Knowing Sarah was making the same cookies in Dallas (also knowing that her cookies spread just as badly as ours!) gave me a sense of connection with our young adults across the miles.

CARTI has locations to treat cancer all over Arkansas. Homebase is in Little Rock, but I'm thankful they also have a center in my hometown that provides most of the services I need. For my six-month checkups, I needed to return to the Little Rock offices. Their four-story building can be a little bit foreboding. The fourth floor is where I began my chemo before I transferred to my local center for the remainder of the year of treatments. I hadn't returned to the big chemo lab since that initial infusion.

Peering out through the window and watching the hundreds of people waiting to receive chemo that day brought a flood of emotions and memories that I wasn't expecting. I was only there for some quick blood work, but I felt gut-punched. My body is slowly rebuilding muscle and stamina, and my prognosis is good. As I watched people be lifted out of vehicles and into wheelchairs, I felt extra gratitude for my current situation. 

After I finished my two morning appointments, I met a friend from junior high downstairs. We used to sing in choir together, and now we are both cancer survivors. We joked about starting a club, in fact, another one of our sweet friends from our choir days also has tackled and beaten breast cancer. So our club is small, and nobody would really want to join our elite membership requirements! Rebekkah played piano along with me on cello, and we made the lobby festive for an hour with Christmas carols, spreading joy and hope and encouragement in a place where it's often hard to find those elusive qualities.

Advent Reading

"Peace, a complement of hope, is the sign that our hope is rooted in Christ and his kingdom."

~Matt Rawle, "The Redemption of Scrooge"

We're always looking for new resources to help us celebrate Advent and Christmas, but I was hesitant to try this book from Matt Rawle's "Pop in Culture" series. Halfway through, I'm really beginning to like how it takes Dicken's Christmas classic (which our family reads aloud or listens to each year) and finds nuggets of wisdom that correlate with Biblical truths. It's not a Bible study, but "The Redemption of Scrooge" is a thought-provoking addition to the season.

Carols at the Capitol, Cancer, and Coffee

My appointments continued, and we celebrated the clear mammogram and a good visit with the surgeon by using our Barnes and Noble gift cards for a coffee date.

Day 4 of Advent was "Carols at the Capitol". Katherine joined members of the Arkansas Symphony and other students to add joy and beauty to the beautiful acoustics of our state capitol.

One of my cello students participated, too. Now that I know adult community members can play along, I'll be clearing my calendar next year so Aaron and I can take advantage of this opportunity.

Waiting during Advent

 "Waiting is the spiritual posture of endurance." ~Mark Vroegop, "Waiting Isn't a Waste"

When I scheduled my many "six months after chemo" checkups, I didn't realize they would fall during the first week of Advent. This theme of waiting, persevering, enduring keeps popping up in my life. So while we're waiting to unwrap each day's Advent tag, I'm spending copious amounts of time in waiting rooms.  

Day 2 reminded us "Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god." (Psalm 24:3-4) Katherine found hand soap in a yummy Christmas scent when she opened the package.

On Day 3, we attended our first Conway Men's Chorus concert. One of my students unexpectedly texted me and said "I see you across the auditorium!" And after we got settled, an orchestra mom walked down the side aisle and sat down next to us.

The local high school choir opened the concert, and it was fun to pole my head out into the hallway and give everybody a thumbs-up before they walked on stage. The biggest reason we attended this concert, in addition to the beautiful music, was to watch my student Evan play as part of a string quartet with several of the songs. What a lovely way to kick off Advent!

 

Sweet Sabbath

"Sabbath is an invitation to receptivity, an acknowledgment that what is needed is given and need not be seized." ~Walter Brueggman, "Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to a Culture of Now"

"What is needed is given"...reading this sweet reminder makes me breathe a big, happy sigh. God is the one doing the work in my heart, He is the one fighting on my behalf, He is the one wearing the other half of the yoke, He is the one leading the way.

We set aside the weekends in Advent to give or serve a local organization in some capacity. The first weekend in December, we chose Jordana's Joy as the recipient. This nonprofit organization was founded by my cousin and his wife after their daughter spent three months in NICU. 

NICU babies and their families are extra special to us because Benjamin spent the first week of his life, including Christmas, in NICU. Katherine perused the wish list and chose a few things to send to Jordana's Joy.

Advent Begins

 "Waiting requires living by what I know to be true about God when I don't know what's true about my life....Waiting reveals what we believe about ourselves and about God. It challenges our dreams, expectations, and abilities. Waiting is a frequent and often painful reminder that we're not in control. God is." ~Mark Vroegop, "Waiting Isn't a Waste"

When I read "Waiting is a Waste" recently, I didn't have Advent in mind, I was only thinking of our current season of waiting and how challenged I am with all the unknowns in our lives. But as Advent approached and arrived, I realized Vroegop's book was the perfect Advent book for me this year.

We began Advent with a sunset walk around beautiful Lake Nixon while Katherine was in youth orchestra rehearsal. We continue to operate out of what we know to be true about our God. We continue to persevere, even when it's uncomfortable and we don't have much to show for the hard work. We continue to fight for joy, even in the darkness of the waiting.

After Thanksgiving 2024

We had only a few hours together the day after Thanksgiving, so we made the most of it. We quickly cleaned up the thankful turkey, sealing its feathers in a ziplock bag marked 2024. Looking at previous years' feathers is one of my favorite things. Those early years have some creative spellings :)

The young adults sword fought with the Christmas tree branches,

we cut and gathered holly boughs,

and we reminisced as we pulled out the old, treasured ornaments. Soon, the newlyweds pulled out of the driveway to return to school. We enjoyed a few more hours with Sarah before she left for Dallas. And then the house was very quiet.

A walk around the neighborhood always helps me feel better, so the three of us crunched through the leaves.  We caught the golden hour as the sun illuminated the leaves still clinging tenaciously to the trees.

Because we know the next few weeks will be busy, and this year's advent season is shorter than usual, we began our family candle lighting and devotional reading the day after Thanksgiving. It's never too early to be still and focus our attention on Jesus.

 

Thanksgiving 2024

Quietly, I snuck out on the porch with my steaming coffee so I wouldn't wake the sleeping young adults. Aaron and I took a quick walk around the neighborhood before we began preparing for brunch and the extras who would soon arrive.

One of those extras was my nephew, who loved sitting on my lap and reading "Bear Says Thanks". What a sweet book, perfect for little ones with the repeated refrain, "and the bear says thanks!".

After brunch with my parents and nephew, several of us went for a walk by Stone Dam Creek.

The turtles were also enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine.

And yes, those guys are barefoot :)

Aaron's mom and step-dad were out of town, so our gathering was tiny (but not as small as when we are in the village and it's just us!). My mom cooked the turkey, which freed up our oven for all the other goodies we made.

My grandmother joined us for turkey and all the fixings. 

As in years past, Sarah dished up so much goodness.

I love how she makes each pie beautiful and delicious. Notice the details on the crust? She cut out tiny leaves to enhance the pecan pie.

That evening, after the guests had all gone home, the temperatures began to plummet outside as we gathered with cozy cups of coffee or hot chocolate.

Connor had never read "An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving", so we introduced it to him by allowing him to read it out loud to all of us. Aaron worked on the autumn puzzle, Katherine drew, and I soaked it all up.

Day before Thanksgiving 2024

Molly's Pilgrim is a sweet little read-aloud that pairs nicely with working on an autumn puzzle. This year for Thanksgiving, our house wouldn't be as full as usual.

Sarah drove in from Dallas, Olivia and Connor made their way from NW Arkansas, coffee was consumed and chatting began.

With the abundance of American ingredients, Sarah created beautiful and delicious pies. She continues to tweak her traditional recipes, this year she produced pecan, pumpkin, and caramel apple pies.

At the end of the day, we gathered on the back patio, bundled up in blankets expecting our first freeze of the season, devoured s'mores, and continued sweet conversations.