HDYDI: Find God During Advent

I must freely admit something.

When the Dominican Sister’s Advent retreat was cancelled this weekend, I was in a funk. Big time. Just ask the Mister. As many of us women gathered on Friday evening to drown our sorrows in Creamy Jalapeno Dip at Chuy’s, we all said the same thing: we put all our Advent eggs into the Sisters basket. And now we’re all paying for it. Advent has gotten off to a slow start for me, but perhaps that’s just what God intended. We just got our tree up this weekend (twice, another story for later this week), blessed the Advent wreath and remembered St. Nicholas’ feast day.

That’s called life.

I was perusing last year’s Advent posts and man, was I on the ball. I’m hoping the two of us – you and me – find some inspiration in those words and fun photos. I pray that even though Advent may not be rocking and rolling like it usually is, there is still time to prepare for His birth. After all, when the rest of the world packs it up and stores everything in the attic on December 25, we’ll just be getting the party started. Oh yeah. The best part about being Catholic? Celebrating well into the new year – January 6, Epiphany!

Here’s a few posts to get you in the Advent spirit. Enjoy!

Prepare Yourself For Advent

You are worthy of God’s love. No really, you are. Just the way you are. As a wife and mother, I’ve gotten caught in the trap of believing that if I just do a little more, love better or add this “other thing” to my schedule, then God will think I’m good enough to love. Surely, he can’t love me in my brokenness right now, can He? That’s a pretty crummy container to put God in, gals. And, a lovely speaker reminded me.

The Beauty of the Christmas Nativity

I hesitate to say I am a collector of nativities. Rather, mine are collected. I’m not interested in acquiring more, but only because the ones I have possess sentimentality, tradition and purpose.

Keeping Gift Giving Under Control

I don’t think one has to be part of a big family to appreciate the purposeful nature of gift giving. Think back to your most favorite gift. I’m betting it was one that felt like it was hand-picked just for you. The gift giver put some thought into it and you felt loved and appreciated. Each year, we struggle with the “just right” balance of gifts that come into our home.

What’s a Christmas without a Nutcracker?

When asked their favorite part of the day, my girls said it was a tie between buying their very own Nutcracker and the cute mice in Act I of the ballet. My favorite part of the day came in a two pretty simple moments. We were walking up the stairs to the theatre. The girls and my mom were just ahead of me, holding Nana’s hands, gushing about what they were excited to see. The second was watching their faces when Mother Ginger came out on stage. He/she was hilarious!

Preparing Advent Teacher Gifts

Every year, we look for a fun, meaningful and heartfelt way to tell our teachers (and Luke’s therapists!) how much they mean to our family. In year’s past, I’ve made mixesand given gift cards. This year, I opted to put my culinary and Pinterest pinning skills to work. For months, I’ve been pinning some dee-licious recipes and they are doing me NO favors just sitting on those boards.