Happy Advent!

It's December already!

We have a lot going on around here the next few weeks! We've just found out that we will be moving to Independence as soon as we get back from our 4 day trip to St. Louis this week. I wrote a little bit about it over at my personal blog. Read it here. A brief recap though, is that we'll be resident managers at Hillcrest Transitional Housing. That means lots of packing and purging. The new place will be smaller, but we're going to get creative and make it work. It means free rent and a location closer to where Rob works!

It also means taking down all of our pretty decorations and putting them up somewhere else. *sigh* oh well. :)

We just purchased a part of those decorations that isn't in the photo above. We started celebrating the advent season with a family advent candle set last year, but it was borrowed. This year we got our own. It was great getting Rob into Hobby Lobby. :) I think he enjoyed himself though and I let him have some leeway with choosing the candles... he's all about bigger being better... *sigh again* ;) They didn't have any dark blue or purple, but one of these years we'll get it together sooner than the first day of Advent!

Some of you may not be familiar with the purpose of Advent candles. We weren't until 2 years ago. Not every Christian denomination uses them in their services, and we had no idea that some people also used them at home.

Advent is the season of preparation for the coming of our Lord. We both remember His first coming, and look forward to His second. Each week in December a different candle is lit and scripture is usually read that spells out some aspect of the prophecy of the coming(s) of the Messiah. It's a great way to keep the family focused on what this season is about. We hope it will also be a way to share more about God's love and His plan for us with the residents at Hillcrest as they see our lighted candles. So happy first week of Advent!