*Make sure that the angel gifts get bought, labeled, and delivered to each child's class (my son forgot to turn his in and didn't realize it until I pointed out that they were still in his backpack - luckily it wasn't the deadline yet).
*Buy gifts for family, friends, teachers, activity leaders, church staff, the DOG (yes I know - he is a family member in our eyes), and whoever else I suddenly remember last minute...depends of if I can turn off my shopping gene.
*Decorate our new house, and since it's a new house, of course we need a new tree, new decorations, etc. b/c the old ones just didn't look right, or we needed decorations for a banister, which we didn't have in the old house (I know, I know, my eyes are rolling at myself as I type this). Also try to keep puppy from eating all decorations, including the elf.
*Celebrate my husband's birthday (has nothing to do with Advent other than it falls in the season). It's a big one though, so we need to do it right. You only turn 35 once!
*Volunteer at our local Family Services organization to help with gift distribution.
*Baking.....lots and lots of baking.
*Do daily (yes daily) activities which I planned out myself for our family Advent activity calendar. Some are easy and helpful (put stamps on Christmas Cards) and some I am wondering if I just like to punish myself (painting ornaments - this will inevitably end up with someone mad that their ornament didn't turn out, they didn't find the color they wanted, spilled water cups with diluted paint running all over the table). To add to that, we also have the chocolate Advent calendars, and the Lego Advent Calendar.
*Prep and co-direct our children's Christmas musical at church. This has been in the works since August. This last month is the putting it all together, getting the props, costumes, gifts for helpers, final rehearsals and finally the final show with a gift drive for the teens and elderly in the community. This pretty much dominates my weekends in December. Luckily I have a partner in crime that shares my stress...I mean joy! ;)
*Parties - oh the parties. They really are fun, but at some point I am just glad when they are all done. We have Sunday School parties, Children's Programs parties, Bible Study group parties, school parties, and work parties. Like I said they are all fun, but being an introvert by nature, I am exhausted by the end of the month, and I just want to crawl into my bed and watch Dancing with the Stars/Greys Anatomy/Parenthood/Blacklist episodes all day.
*Almost forgot the elf! Now we don't have the traditional elf on the shelf. Our elf Charlie even looks different. He just comes to share in the joy of Christmas with us, so my kids are able to touch, hold, and even play with the elf. When he comes, they immediately start showing him all the holiday decor that is up, and this year my daughter even had him sleep with her the first night he arrived. Now with that comes sporadic movement. He moved 2-3 times today just due to the kids wondering if he would move while they were gone. But he doesn't always have to move at night either. I am not sure if it makes it better or not. The true challenge this year, as I stated above, is keeping our puppy who likes to chew everything to bits away from Charlie. There have been some close encounters, and he even had him in his mouth one time (I thought my daughter was going to lose her mind), but so far so good.
On top of this, we have all the family get togethers. Now this is my favorite part. Seeing all my family, eating delicious food, and just enjoying each others company. We go to see family in Fredericksburg, TX the weekend before Christmas, then Christmas Eve we go to Denison to see more family. Christmas Day we stay home and any family that wants to come over can do so and celebrate, but I am pretty much not getting out of my pajamas until after noon that day.
All this being said I was wondering if I was a glutton for punishment or just plain crazy when I saw an Advent devotional while browsing through Mardel's this evening. I was actually looking for the devotional that our Sunday School class is doing, but they didn't have it. I decided that I would just buy the other one on my Nook. Since my husband had taken the kids to martial arts class, I decided I would browse around a little bit. I kept coming back to the same devotional, Waiting Here for You. I don't know if it was the song that kept coming to my head, or what, but I knew I wasn't leaving the store without purchasing it. While in the store I kept telling myself that maybe I was over doing it. I have the Advent devotional from Sunday School, we are doing the Jesse Tree as a family, and I also have the bible verses each day with our family activity.
When I got in the car, it hit me. How silly I was to think that one more Advent study might be too much. The season is about preparing ourselves for the coming Christ. When I look at my schedule, how can I NOT make room to draw nearer to Him, to prepare my mind, heart, and soul for Him? If anything else I NEED another Advent study. All the other events of this month can take over and skew my priorities. Not that any of them are bad, but they pull my thoughts and my time away from the true importance of this season. A long, long time ago, I am pretty sure that Mary wasn't worried about lugging their tree on the back of that donkey, and the Wise Men themselves only brought only one special gift each for Jesus. For Jesus, the Savior, Prince of Peace, son of God the Father. And that was enough. So while I am feeling the need to go out and buy one more present or decorate one more area of our house, instead I will try and fill my time with His word and preparing myself for the celebration His birth.
Happy Advent. :)
