Waiting. Hoping.

I was really blessed during my early morning devotion time during the month of December.  I do NOT like mornings, and I have not been able to get up early since having kids.  But this month, (by the grace of God!) I found myself looking forward to my quiet kitchen, my coffee, my time with God.  Jeff is really good at this--and I loved having time to just sit quietly with him, too.  Ann Voskamp's book, The Greatest Gift, gave some really good reflections...and for the first season in many years, I felt closer to Christ during the crazy season of Christmas.

The kids had a few advent calendars to do each night.  G'ma Joan gave us a quilt hanging to add figures to, we have Debbie's tree ornaments that tell the story of Jesus' birth, and Sarabeth hooked us up with a a great calendar with kid activities that she found online.  I don't think we started them until 12/5, and several nights we had to catch up on a few days readings due to school concerts and other Christmas crazies, but the kids had some good reflection time as well.  My favorite is that they hate Herod and wanted me to skip any reading that had anything to do with him.  He gives them nightmares.