Advent Advent Lives!

And so Day One of Advent Advent was a success.  A boat load of toys was redistributed, a group of mothers compared notes on our heart's desire to find joy and peace in the Christmas season, and facebook (via NvK) delivered a manageable idea for how to do Advent. The real Advent.

A friend wondered if maybe I was creating a bit too much pressure for Jesus to live up to, you know, what with me wanting to have the Best Christmas Ever. And of course, it's true. I do kind of have high expectations on this one, a rare thing for a person who has made a lifestyle out of creating and maintaining low expectations. But on the other hand, I see all this Advent Adventing as an exercise in being mindful and purposeful about Advent and Christmas so that I don't find myself weeping on December 26th, certain yet again that we missed the whole point.

I suppose that I've put a lot of pressure on myself, to lead my children through the season in such a way that they don't get to the other side feeling let down and disappointed. Or angry and resentful. Or just desperate to avoid it at all costs for the rest of their lives. And my current working theory is that one way of doing this is to dissipate the pressure - instead of all of our joy resting on the fulcrum of One Magical Morning!, what if it got built upon over several weeks, weeks in which being together was a tiny bit more intentional, a tiny bit more ...holy? Okay, I see how that is a lot to ask, but it's my hearts desire, and I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the Bible it says that God loves granting our heart's desire.  And don't you think that wanting to celebrate the part where the Father shares his Son with us so that we'll know how much we're loved is a desire that that same Father might be kind of excited about?

I'm counting on it.