AdventBlog: Day 4 (giving)

I've decided to give as many homemade gifts as possible this year, and that gift-giving includes you!

I know most of you have already purchased, wrapped, and stashed your Christmas gifts...those are just the kind of readers I have.  ;-)  For those of you who might NOT be fully prepared, I wanted to offer a little something to help you along. Here are Christmas tags in two different color schemes. Please save and use them if you can! Make sure to download the "original" size so it will print out correctly on an 8.5x11 piece of paper. If you would rather have the PDF, please email me and I'll send it your way!

If you want something more specific, please don't hesitate to ask. I'd love to customize the color scheme for you.

Happy Christmas!

AdventBlog: Day 3

Derek preached a really great sermon today on "hope," more specifically "hoping in God." Here's a quote he used that I can't get out of my head:

"Creatures are not born for desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

AdventBlog: Day 2

Dave and I finished up decorating our home today. Something happens to me when I'm done dressing up my living space for Christmas: I start anticipating the holiday. The decorations are a great kick-off for me. I love how the entire mood of the house changes. Suddenly, everything feels peaceful and cozy. Here are a few corners of our home (aaaand a christmas self portrait with my new haircut):

• We decorate. Jesus had a manger and a cave.
  
• We hustle. Heaven stood still.

AdventBlog: Day 1

ad⋅vent  [ad-vent]
–noun

1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.
   
2. (usually initial capital letter) the coming of Christ into the world.
   
3. (initial capital letter) the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.
   
4. (usually initial capital letter) Second Coming.
   

Beginning tomorrow (well, today) and for the rest of December leading into Christmas, I am going to focus this blog on the advent season. Hopefully, it will be helpful to someone other than me. Really, it's simply going to be an exercise in letting my mind wander as I think through what Christmas means.