There is so much talk in the Catholic world about how to celebrate Advent. The suggestions and ideas are endless. Some people are adamant about waiting until Christmas Eve to put their tree up. Others put theirs up the day after Thanksgiving. Some people refuse to listen to any sort of Christmas music until Christmas day. Others belt it out all Advent long. And I've come to realize, as I read and observe so many different approaches, that there are as many ways to celebrate Advent as their are families who are celebrating.
This is how we've celebrated this special season. For this year. I'm sure each year will be a bit different-just as
each year in the past has been different. But it's been wonderful and beautiful and uniquely ours.
What we did
We spent a lot of time playing with the nativity scene to teach Hannah about all the "characters" of the Christmas story. We also went to a living nativity, which really helped her to know what we were talking about. This nativity is the one I had as a little girl. My dad built the manger and we kept it on our hearth. I would spend countless hours rearranging the little plastic figurines in every way imaginable. When I left for college I took it with me, even though my two younger sisters probably want it as badly as I do. Too bad-I'm the oldest :)
To see Hannah play with it was a very real dream come true. I love watching her make the angel fly and count the wise men. And if I ask her, "Who is baby Jesus' mommy?" I love watching her light up as she holds up the Blessed Mother and say, "Mummy" her adorable attempt at "Mary."
We kept an Advent wreath on our kitchen table and lit the candles every night before dinner. To make it exciting for Hannah, we turned off all the lights. Then, in addition to the traditional prayer before meals and our usual prayer for the souls in purgatory, we sang one verse of
Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. She loved it. Especially blowing the candles out. She folds her little hands, bows her head, and closes her eyes for the entire prayer-knowing she'll get to blow the candles out at the end. She even bows her sweet head if she hears the song at Mass or playing in the kitchen. So precious.
For the third week of Advent we're singing the final verse of the song instead of the third verse. In light of the tragedy in Connecticut, it seemed like the best prayer we could pray.
Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
We also read the few Christmas books that we have (although they pale in excitement to The Foot Book and Babies Everywhere) and went to a nursing home one evening to sing Christmas carols with our Families Following Christ group.
No Jesse Tree or O Antiphons for us this year. We kept it simple. And it was perfect.
How we decorated
We put our Christmas decorations up on the first Sunday of Advent. It was hard to wait-I was ready the day after Thanksgiving! I know some people like to wait until closer to Christmas, but for me-the decorations are a big part of what prepares my heart for this holy day. Relaxing in a dimly lit living room next to our Christmas tree sets the mood for the entire season. Peace, anticipation, joy-the warmth our decorations create could never be left out of Advent for me.
Here are few highlights:
Our Advent wreath. I bought these candles for our first married Christmas back in Missouri. Because I am super cheap and only let them burn long enough for the prayer, they've lasted for five Advents! I'm confident they have at least three or four more years to go too. The wreath is a cheapo from Walmart that I dressed up with dried baby's breath that was given to us and-yes-saved each year after year. I love it having it on the kitchen table, the focal point of our home.
Hannah loves it too. Only she prefers it like this:
I love nativity scenes and we have five in our tiny three bedroom house this year. In addition to our
Little People set, we have these four:
1-This was a gift from a sweet family I used to nanny for. It sat on top of our tv stand until donkey lost an ear on day two of Advent. So it went up to a tall shelf.
2-The second is the set from my childhood. My favorite.
3-This beautiful piece was a wedding present from my parents. It actually stays out all year long in our bedroom. A beautiful reminder of the type of family we are called to be.
4-The last one is Hannah's, a gift from her Oma last year. We have a little battery operated tea light in it and we let her turn it on at night and keep it in her room.... when we remember and when she's not way overtired and cranky.
I know most families leave the baby Jesus out of the manger until Christmas or move the wise men closer and closer each day until Epiphany. But since we won't be home for either of those days, we just included them now. It's much better than a nativity displayed without them for the entire season.
A little smattering of the rest of our home:
1-The stockings were hung above the tv with care....
2-This is our first year with these stockings. Ted's talented sister made them. I couldn't pick out the fabric because I didn't have access to a good fabric store when we lived in Mississippi. But now that we're in Florida I should have a wide selection of fabric to choose from for future children. It's so neat to know they were were made by the kids' aunt and that I'll be able to choose a unique fabric to fit their little personalities. I wonder how many stockings we'll be hanging in our future....
3-This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and finally did it! It's a ribbon (gold, kind of hard to see) with all of our Christmas cards from previous years. The first is our save-the-date from the Christmas we were engaged. The next four are fakes-we didn't send out Christmas cards our first four years of marriage. I just made fake cards on Picasa from past Christmas pictures and printed them out just for this. The bottom one is our first family Christmas card! Thank you groupon! I think I'll buy a thick purple ribbon for next year to make it a little more "Adventy".
4-My family has a tradition of getting an ornament on St. Nick's day every year. One for each of us kids and a family ornament. It was really important to me to continue this tradition so we used made sure we squeezed them into the Christmas budget. Hannah's second Christmas ornament is her favorite animal-an alligator. She loves it. She stands at the tree and stares at it and smiles. Weird girl. But very cute.
5-Our beautiful tree skirt. Made by Ted's mom and given to use when we got married. It looks so pretty with our floors.
6-Our family ornament for 2012. Including baby :)
And last but not least, our tree! We have always been a little disappointed with our tree selection in the past. We could never afford the kind of tree we really wanted. But thanks to some friends with a Costco membership-we got a nine foot frasier fir for cheaper than any previous tree we've had! It's gorgeous. It smells amazing. It makes me so very, very happy. Every morning Hannah wakes up and asks to go see it. Then she tells us "tee on" and we turn the lights on and admire it. As soon as the sun sets we dim the lights and enjoy the evening by the light of the tree. I wish it could be up year-round.
What we listened to
This was the first year I really tried to play
Advent songs and I love the mood it created. My cousin gifted me with
this CD and I'm pretty sure it's been played at least three times through every day since I got it. We've avoided most traditional Christmas songs like
Joy to the World and
Silent Night in anticipation for Christmas. But I admit, the past few days I've been listening to instrumental versions because I just can't wait any longer! There are also lots of secular songs that really get me in the Christmas mood (especially when it was in the 70s here today and I left the house in a tank top...)
Baby It's Cold Outside, Let It Snow, I'll Be Home for Christmas. I just can't get enough.
My
absolute favorite Christmas song, Breath of Heaven, is actually perfectly appropriate for Advent. I listen to it on repeat. So easy to pray the words right along with Mary.
Help me be strong. Help me be. Help me.
And the one song I've been craving more than any other-
Joseph's Lullaby. I'm forcing myself to wait until Christmas. But when it gets here I'll be listening to it on repeat and soaking in its beauty.
So that's our Advent! And even though Christmas isn't for another four days, I feel like it's about over for us. We're about to leave our peaceful, simple life and embark on more than a two week trip all over Missouri. It'll be crazy and hectic and tons of fun. Before the packing and the flying and the hours of driving, we shared one last night as just the three (four) of us at a park in town. Hannah loved the lights. We loved the cuddles.
