It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent

Actually, the world is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but Advent is my story and I'm sticking to it.

That means I'll engage in a little Advent busy-ness Saturday, in order to start our preparations for Christmas.

The Advent wreath will come out:

The Jesse Tree will go up:

The Jesse Tree

Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

But a shoot shall sprout from

the stump of Jesse, and from his

roots a bud shall blossom.

The spirit of the Lord shall

rest upon him: a spirit of

wisdom and of understanding,

a spirit of counsel and of

strength, a spirit of knowledge

and of fear of the Lord.

~~ Isaiah 11:1-2

The Advent Calendars will appear. All kinds of Advent calendars. Lots of them:

Favorite Advent and Christmas picture books will gather in pagey clusters under the Jesse Tree. Because no one is ever too old for picture books.

Ramona's all-time favorite

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There's more, to be sure. More to do, more to blog about (and sometimes there will be more blogging about doing less. Less is more, when it comes to Advent.)

There's my No-Panic Advent series, which brings all of our ideas and traditions together in one frighteningly long post.

And there are other Advent link-ups to check out:

"Little Holy Days" will be hosted by Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, along with Dualing Moms and
Molly Makes Do. Good stuff.

Bonnie Engstrom of A Knotted Life has a great video announcement here about her Advent series. (I'll be part of that one later in December.)

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So take a breath and remember -- Advent is not a marathon, not a competition, not an event, and not a reason to go crazy. It's preparation for the best birthday party of all time. Just think of the One you're preparing a party for -- you know what He'd say if you could sit down with Him and talk about the soiree:

"Don't go to a lot of trouble for Me. Don't wear yourself out and get stressed, okay? The only gift I really want is the gift of yourself. That's all. Pass the birthday cake. How did you know I wanted chocolate?"