Advent

We're now in Advent season full speed ahead. December holds lots of activity, both personal & ministry.

My wife & I sat down with our calendar to plot out the visit of her parents December 15-29. This visit has suddenly come up and we're happy that they'll be with us. But it's a good reminder that December will be a full month.

We even had to plot out when to pick up a Christmas tree. It's likely to be an IKEA run after English Club tomorrow and before we look a Paris Christmas windows and have supper with some friends. Sunday will be digging out our Christmas decoration boxes from the basement and then decorating the tree.

Tonight we'll need to start printing out invitations for the Christmas cookie baking parties that we'll be doing. It will either be 3 or 4 afternoons during the Christmas break. We'll probably give out 40-50 invitations, although not everyone will be able to come. But it provides a good opportunity to connect with friends from the neighborhood.

The last 2 days, I've been doing lots of work on sending publicity for December events at the arts center. There is a lot going on this month.

In the midst of all this, we need to make time for the core event of this season, the commemoration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hope to teach our kids more of the traditional Christmas carols this season.

Earlier today I accompanied my son's class to their weekly swim class. It's a lively group of kids. Somehow we want to have Christ's presence break into the lives of this group.

At lunch, my older daughter asked about our daughter who was born stillborn just over a year ago. I showed her some photos of her baby sister for the first time, as she seemed like she needed to see them. It's interesting the perspective of a 6 year old on all this. I pray that God will help her understand it in a way appropriate for her.

Now it's time to get my younger daughter & go to her swim class.