We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. ~Isaiah 64:8



Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Part 5 - Keeping Advent

The Laundry Room
A wonderful Scandinavian tradition is to do a “spring” cleaning before Christmas – An Advent Cleaning. With 3 kids “helping” (and making more messes along the way), this can be a monumental task. But, I love having a clean and organized house before the Christmas mayhem of guests, gifts and gluttony. So, we’ll incorporate the cleaning and decluttering into our Advent preparations all the while remembering that we are doing our part to “prepare the way” for the Christ Child in our home as well as our hearts.

We will start going room by room next week. If we do a little each day, we’ll get through the whole house before the end of Advent. Then before Christmas, we just need to do the basic weekly cleaning chores.

My Writing Desk
To be true to the Advent spirit, one might consider waiting to write cards until AFTER Christmas, but I’d never get to them if I waited! This year, I’m going to get our cards ready during Advent (part of our Christmas preparations) and mail them on the 26th of December. The post office will be delighted, I’m sure.

Our Computer Desk
Here are some of my favorite Advent (and some Christmas) links – they are randomly listed:
Quotations for Advent and Christmas, A big Advent site (also see their Christmas page), Lent & Beyond has a wonderful Advent page - you'll find it listed in the side bar (the link is down right now), and some fun stuff for the kids.

2 comments:

Laura said...

This has been so helpful, Kerry. It's a wonderful privilege for my husband and me to establish our family celebrations, mixing the old and new traditions that will help us to focus on Christ. Thank you so much for your generous ideas!

elaine@bloginmyeye said...

Oooh, an Advent cleaning! Brilliant.