Our Weekend: The Beginning of Advent

Happy December!  Happy Advent!  I love this time of year, and I especially love it through the eyes of my children.  We had a great Thanksgiving week; my husband was off from work the entire week, and we thoroughly enjoyed being at home and being together.  All of us were sick with colds and such, but that just made staying inside all the more acceptable.

We decided to put up our Christmas tree on Friday night and I'm so glad we did.  In years past, I have been the lone decorator of the tree {with the exception of the lights--that's always the man's job}, and I missed those days of decorating the tree with my parents and siblings.  For the first time, my oldest two girls were interested and capable of decorating the tree.  It was truly thrilling to watch their excitement as they carefully placed ornaments on the branches.  And I only rearranged a few, just to make sure the tree wouldn't tip over.  Letting go of my 'I want a perfectly decorated, pinnable Christmas tree' was quite freeing.  And my girls appreciated the bit of responsibility they were given.

We took the kids out shopping on Black Friday, just to peruse the toys and have them point out things they liked.  We're trying to teach them about contentment and being greedy and giving -- these are hard things for little people to learn.  Contentment is hard for us adults to learn!  But, it was fun to watch them get excited about what they would give to each other for Christmas.  We've since done some ear-whispering about ideas and I love how they're learning the joy of giving.

Yesterday evening we ventured out to the yard with our tripod and camera remote to try and capture that perfect family photo for our Christmas card.  I had pretty high expectations and some great ideas for poses.  Let me just tell you that's not the best way to try and photograph four children, two of whom can't walk or follow instructions.  I was lamenting over the fact that there weren't any perfect ones.  Bradley's response was, "Good.  Because we're not perfect.  This is us, it's more real."  So, if you too haven't gotten that perfect photo, embrace the imperfect.

I took the week off from cleaning and laundry, so today's tasks are pretty simple:  clean, organize, and wash. My goal with laundry, as of late, is really just to actually put the folded clothes away.  That to me is success. There are still two laundry baskets full of the kids' clothes sitting in our bedroom from last week.  They're folded, just never made it to the dressers.  My poor children can't ever find their underwear!  Maybe today will be different.

This was our weekend, and a little bit of the week.  Back to routine today, but I think I'm ready.

I want to focus my attention today on Jesus, the Light of the World, who entered our darkness as a tiny baby.  His light has pierced the darkness of my heart, and as I go through the tasks today of cleaning, correcting, counting my blessings, and caring for others, I want that light to shine out in powerful ways that my children might know Jesus a bit more.


Linking up here.