It's Advent Time!! And Other Little Tidbits..

My favorite time of the year!!  I adore the Advent season.   For me, its a time when I consciously make the effort to slow down and ponder about what I feel Christmas is truly about. And what its not about!
Its not easy in today's society to keep Jesus as the focal point of Christmas! Yet I feel keenly that its what is needed most.  

We have a few traditions that have become so sweet to us.  Our Nativity set that we set up on the first day of Advent.  Our advent wreath with 5 fresh white candles.  Our stack of Christmas books and devotionals unpacked.  And last but not least, a simple advent calendar that has 2 windows to open each night: the first window a Christmas symbol and behind the second window a small piece of chocolate!

Here's the picture of this year's advent calendar (you can't see the chocolate windows in this picture, which hang below the picture):

Every night we light the appropriate Advent candles, I'll share a Christmas story, read a portion of scripture and/or a devotional...and we'll all three sing a Christmas hymn or carol and then Luke will get to open his calendar windows - best part of his day! LOL!! 

We've been more or less doing the same thing for Advent for the last 8 years.  And every year, as I strive to slow down and settle my heart to ponder the Greatest Gift of all time, there comes a point where it hits me. And I find myself awestruck at  what He's done for us.    This point sometimes comes on Christmas eve..sometimes sooner..... but it always does come - this overwhelming awe for this Light that God has given us.  A wondrous hope and a gift for all eternity.  For ETERNITY!!
And to think it started with a wee child born in a manger! WOW!!

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I just discovered the 9th book in the Anne of Green Gable series!!  The Blythes are Quoted.  There seems to be a bit of mystery surrounding what is known to be L.M Montgomery's last piece of work.  It was submitted to her publisher right before her death laid out exactly as we see in The Blythes are Quoted. However at that time it was deemed inappropriate to publish as is - perhaps because of the darker themes present, perhaps because of the times (WWII), perhaps because L.M Montgomery's message was not crystal clear with this enigmatic work.   And so it was dissasembled and only parts of it were ever previously published.  However thanks to the dedication of a few Montgomery fans, it was published in its entirety AND in the exact format that L.M Montgomery had submitted it, in 2009!

I've only just begun - but I was thrilled to BITS to find at the beginning, a poem that is referred to in Rilla of Ingleside (the 8th book) called the Piper.  In the story, this poem was written by Anne's son Walter, who died in WWI.  The poem had been alluded to several times but never actually written in the book. So it was an exciting start to this mysterious read!

I'll update as I finish reading it - I DO hope it can erase the dissappointment of The Story Girl which I just finished.  I had such high hopes for the Story Girl because it is alleged to be the favorite of Lucy Maude herself... but for me the entire story felt extremely contrived and the descriptiveness just didn't ring true as they do in her other more notable works.  I hope I don't sound blasphemous when I say that it almost didn't feel like an L.M Montgomery piece of writing!!  In any case, not a book I'll be purchasing for our library. 

But I WILL update you on how I like The Blythes are Quoted.  I'm looking forward to seeing how her writing had progressed or changed towards the end of her life. 

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Luke's latest passion is medieval history! We started learning about this era in our studies and he cannot get enough.  He wants to see jousting in real life (can't wait till next summers Medieval festivals), he wants to read all about knights and castles and how people lived in these times.....Its been fun trying to find some fun activities, websites and books to supplement our curriculum!

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I'd stopped writing my little family newsletter during the past 2 years.... partly because I couldn't quite shake the feeling that it was a bit tooo boring, a bit too cheesy and like all family letters a bit too braggy..... and partly because I'd gotten lazy about keeping it up.  But I've received 4 or 5 comments over the past 2 years from different people asking me when I would continue them.... and I really did like keeping in touch through this format, so I'm going to resurrect our family newsletter.  If you are a friend or family reading this, and would like to be on the mailing list, be sure to let me know!

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Well I think I've written enough for one morning.  Time to wake my little honeybear out of bed so that we can get started on our plans for the day! We are making elderberry syrup this morning!

 I'll be back soon!! (sooner than a month I hope!!)

Love,

Trace

XXX