Advent

It's hands down my favorite time of the year.... the anticipation and patient waiting for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be born is such a wonderful time.  We have lots of little Advent things that we do to try and keep the "reason for the season" front and center.

This year as been a bit harder since we're in a rental and about 75% of our possessions are all packed up in storage, but we've managed to keep the big stuff going and the girls have really enjoyed Advent and I feel like understand clearly now that it's a bit more than just Jesus's birthday.  Catherine Ellis wakes up every morning so excited about coloring in her Advent calendar and opening up the next window in her Advent card.

We do have an Elf on the Shelf - I think it's cute and fun - what joy it is to live the holidays through a child's eyes.  We do Santa (three gifts each to try and tie it back to baby Jesus) so Elvis the Elf brings daily doses of delight that we probably wouldn't see otherwise.  Now we're not those parents that are pulling out all the stops - I am quite in awe of the time some put into the Elf - but David and I do have a great time with it and the girls spring out of bed and run around the house crazy until they find him.  Catherine Ellis is the PERFECT age to play along. Caroline just thinks he's plain funny and odd sometimes.  I have tried to Jesus Elvis up a bit, and he does help us with our Advent Wreath each Sunday, but mostly - he's just fun.

We got our tree last weekend and the girls had a blast picking it out - as you can see Caroline's giving someone the stink eye because she thinks they might be interested in "her" tree.  Always enjoy doing this as a family - the girls are a great age - they get SO excited - the joy oozes from them!

We ran by my new office to grab something and made a stop by one of the gorgeous trees in the hospital lobby.  I seem to be able to capture their personalities perfectly in most pictures these days.  Caroline is typically acting like a nut and Catherine Ellis is on cue and ready to pose at any time.

And since we didn't pull out all of our traditional decorations we did miniature trees for the girls rooms - they picked them out - trees, toppers, ornaments and all!  I think it fits their personalities well!

Happy Advent Y'all!

"The angel entered Mary's house and said to her 'Rejoice, full of grace; the Lord is with you!' Mary was perplexed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean. The angel continued,

'Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found favor with God."

Luke 1