Advent catches me off gaurd every year.  Since we’ve had kids, I have aspired to make Advent a staple of our Christmas celebrations.  Yet, somehow, I have a hard time getting it all together before the First Sunday.  It must be all the time and energy that goes into Thanksgiving and then Aidan’s birthday just days later.  Maybe I have an excuse because of that.  I do always attempt to do up Advent right, but it seems so scattered. I’m always scrambling to pull something together and I always start late.   What I have managed to do each year is to put out an Advent calendar with candies in each little box.  We usually do special dinner time devotions and prayer.  We follow that up with the treats from the calendar.  Some years we have attempted to sing a Christmas Carole or hymn, but we are a little challenged in that area.  Tonight our church is hosting Advent Night.  The families were to come together to create Advent wreaths to use in the home.  I was pretty excited about this because I was so close to buying one from CBD.  Part of my desire in doing Advent devotions was to light the candles each Sunday of Advent.  Maybe I would have a wreath this year, though we’d still be a little behind in starting.  Sadly, we are home sick tonight.  So there goes our wreath!  Maybe next year.  However, I do have last year’s materials for Advent that our church gave out to all the families.  I still have it because I didn’t know we were supposed to pick up a packet in the church foyer until after Christmas.  One of the ideas was to take all the devotionals and make a chain to count down the days until Christmas.  I have done that and all we have to do is detach one link every night and use the verses on that link for devotions.   Another idea was to make a manger and add one piece of straw to it for each good deed done during Advent until the “cradle” is prepared for Baby Jesus.  I like that idea, but I didn’t have materials ready as usual.  So, we have our Advent chain and our calendar with treats.  We have our devotionals.  We are doing something.  Maybe someday we will have a Jesse Tree and Advent Wreath.  Maybe I’ll start in October next year preparing for the Season of Celebrating His Birth!