Bringing Advent Home

This Sunday marks the start of one of my favorite times of the year, Advent! I am big into delayed gratification and anticipation, so Advent is right up my alley. Mom Squad blogger, Julie has some great ideas on how to bring Advent into your home and grow spiritually during this season that sometimes can be so frazzling.

Check out her blog here. She was actually published on another blogging site. Go Julie! My favorite idea of hers:

Practice detachment. Go through closets and drawers and give away generously to the poor. If you haven’t used it/worn it in over a year, give it away. Challenge your children to go through their toys and give some away to charities that can reuse them.

 As a final note on Advent, one of my favorite things about it is that it unifies so many Christian denominations. It's a season we celebrate in the Catholic church, but I'm seeing more and more non-Catholic churches recognizing the importance of taking time for preparation and joyful anticipation of the birth of Jesus.

We can say until we are blue in the face that Christmas is about Christ and not Santa, gifts, trees, lights... but if we start celebrating Christmas full-throttle in late November, then are we possibly confusing the folks we are trying to reach? If there is no difference between December 20th and December 25th, are we missing something? Of course, I still sing Christmas songs throughout December and wish my bagger at the grocery store a Merry Christmas, but if we can incorporate little things, like Julie suggests and be more mindful of the time of waiting, I think it will make a difference in our own homes and that will surely spill over!