Approaching Advent

Advent and Christmas are, hands down, my favorite part of the liturgicaly cycle. i love them. it's such a time of quiet and peace and stillness. it is less penitential than lent but often, for me, more meditative. lent i feel is a time of self reflection, of penance, repentance, and such. not that Advent isn't, but it seems more outward-focused, a time of awe for the whole mystery of the Incarnation, of God becoming man, of choosing to be birthed through a woman, of the sorrow both He and She knew were coming.
now that the boys are getting older, i am trying to incorporate more tangible expressions of Advent, as well. last year we did a Jesse tree, thanks to my awesome super crafty friend Sarah, and it was an amazing experience--for me! as well as for my soldier boy. i am excited that this year the baby is old enough to help, too. (speaking of, my baby loves babies. for him, a "baby" is anyone younger than his 3 yr old brother. hah!)
last year i went to the grocery store, bought a door swag, took it apart and made an advent wreath. this year, same friend sarah and i went traipsing around MY LAND!!! and various different sorts of evergreens were gracious enough to share their foliage with us. some of it is prickly, but all of it is beautiful!

boxwood, ubiquitous bush with lovely berries, fir

 now, before we get started on this for real, i had to make tea. because how can anyone do anything during winter in a cold house without tea? (i have dr - dad & self- imposed limits on coffee.)
my current favorite is lavender earl grey. back when i was in college, this was sold exclusively at uppity little coffee shops, for many dollars. now, it is at wal-mart for less than $3/box. how the mighty have fallen!

still-steaming water, and one my favorite polish pottery mugs

while i make tea, my soldier boy snacks on some vanilla cream pie filling that his aunt made and abandoned. she wasn't happy with the texture. i don't think he even notices.

 

 

i'm doing this on the dining room table, since it's a bit bigger and i figure the already dirty table cloth will make for easy clean-up.

 

i'm super excited about this blue cloth. it's for the Christmas candle--it is shrouded in blue and tied with a white ribbon to symbolize the Blessed Virgin carrying Christ. since i had to get some other things, i actually managed to procure some this year.

 

(speaking of dining room: my mum and sister, with help from my nephew, polished my lamp for me! typical that it didn't occur to me that it could or should be polished. in fact, the seller left all this brass cleaner here, and i went, 'Huh. what the heck do i need this for?' and threw away a bunch of it. not all, thank fortune. but doesn't it look awesome! there are rainbows on our walls now from the crystals, and the detail of the brass is noticeable! so, so lovely. thank you again, ladies.)

 





 i build the base with the fir, which is nice, too, because it is soft. i cannot *wait* to tuck in the red berries! some of them are holly, some from those ubiquitous decorative shrubbery that are the stupidest, blandest things until autumn and winter, when their new foliage bloosm a rich, deep purple, and the berries flame out all over.

 

between stage 1 and the finished product, much elapsed in my life: the baby woke up, would not go back to sleep, needed lunch, soldier boy needed lunch, i think maybe i ate, some laundry transpired, and who knows what else. and, to top it all off, i apparently forgot to take a photo of the finished product. so here is the aftermath, instead: 



sorta kinda mostly done. except clean up.

my mother-in-law, her mother-in-law, and my brother-in-law's wife have been collecting Dickens for a long, long time. "Gramma" has begun to dole hers out amongst the family, and she has been enormously generous. i love that we can bring this long-standing tradition from my husband's family into our home. and the boys *love* it. it will be even more special when they reach the ages of being able to help set it up. right now they try to play with it, instead. but they love even looking at it. this is only part of the collection, on top of the pianah.

 

i had a bunch of greenery left, so to top off topping off last year, i made my own door swag, which is not actually on the door but on the house next to the door, on a convenient, pre-placed nail.

waste not, want not
i had to use those berries, too!

so at some point i will get up a photo of the actual wreath--i still have to put together the Christmas candle, anyway.

 

oh, and i cut my hair:

my favorite thing is the bags under my eyes . . .

 it's a sorry self-portrait, but there you have it!