The Advent Christmas Blog

I took a month off of blogging to finish my Christmas novel and get it published. It's not finished. I'm still working on it. It may not be ready for Christmas and I'm just going to have to be okay with that. I belong to an FB group where people put out 20 books a year. I have no idea how they do that. I figure they're witches who wiggle their noses and competed books fall out. Anyway, I decided that I will go back to blogging this month. I'm putting aside my blogging schedule for December and instead doing an Advent Christmas Blog. Christmas this year, is going to be different. It just is and there's nothing we can do about it unless we want to die. No going to the annual community theater play. No school Christmas concerts. No night out at The Nutcracker ballet. No dawdling at Christmas shopping (get in, get out and don't breathe). No big get together with extended family to eat turkey, play games, and fight. No plane trips, or train trips, or even driving over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house to bake cookies. No caroling. No church events - not even a Christmas Eve or Christmas morning service. Santa is staying at the North Pole until Christmas Eve. Mrs. Claus tells me they don't have Covid up there and they want to keep it that way so after Santa's flight, everyone who went out delivering gifts will be in isolation from the rest of the North Pole residents which is making everyone unhappy because they usually go to the Bahamas or Hawaii after Christmas. So we each have three options. 1. Pretend it isn't Christmas. Don't put up decorations. Don't play Christmas music. Don't go shopping or buy presents or send greeting cards. Just pretend that it's a time like any other. 2. Moan and groan about all the things we can't do. Cry over the photo album. Drink spiked egg nog while listening to "Blue Christmas" over and over again. And celebrate Christmas by wallowing in the punch bowl. 3. Decide that Covid didn't stop Christmas from coming. It came. Somehow or other it came just the same! Personally, I'm choosing the last one. And so I'm doing the Advent Christmas Blog.

"Advent is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas (or sometimes from the 1st December to Christmas Day!). Advent means 'Coming' in Latin. This is the coming of Jesus into the world. Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas."

I did not know this. I come from a church that didn't really celebrate Christian holidays. Sure there was Christmas and it was recognized - but not Advent. I had always thought it was just the 24 days leading up to Christmas and you got a calendar with chocolates in it. So clearly I missed that fourth Sunday which would have been Nov. 29. But we'll start on December 1. So my advent blog that I'm attempting, is that everyday during December, I will do a Christmas post. It could be about news, crafts, movies, books, recipes, traditions - whatever. And I challenge other people to do an advent of some kind. Any kind. Following is a list of suggestions. Because I understand people like lists. 1. Scripture Advent One of the other adventy things I'm doing is a scripture advent. Each day I'll study a scripture from the bible based on this reading list which I found through pinterest but I'm going to link to the blog where it came from. December Bible Reading Plan. What I like about this plan is that includes scriptures that talk about the coming of Christ as well as the events of His birth. There are other December scripture lists out there. 2. Family Activity Advent I did this when my kids were little and we didn't have a lot of money. Write down an activity for each day and put them on individual slips of paper. You can either schedule this by putting them in an advent calendar, or you can simply put them in a decorated jar and have the kids pull one out each day. Or you can do a bit of both. There might be some things that need to be scheduled and other things that don't. This year it might be harder to come up with things but there's still plenty to do. Some ideas...

• Decorating

• Christmas movie night

• Phone and video calls to loved ones

• Paper snowflakes

• Menu planning for Christmas dinners

• Building a snowman

• Wrapping gifts

• Writing cards and letters

• Story telling

• Baking

• Book night

• Games night

• Dancing to Christmas music

• Making chocolates If you can't come up with enough activities, you can always do some twice. Like games night, or story telling.

4. Christmas Movie Advent - I've done this before too. Every night watch a Christmas movie. If you have a blog you might want to review it. Be honest. Be ruthless. If you want to see my reviews of Christmas movies you can go to my blog "Views From Hobbit Hole." You'll find a list of the Christmas movies along with links to the review.

5. Christmas Story Time Advent - You could also do a Christmas story time with the kids. If you don't have access to Christmas books, you can look on the internet for stories.

6. Christmas Journaling Advent - This one goes nicely with the Family Advent. Take pictures and scrapbook the experiences. Or do a video blog. Make sure you say the date and film it. You can choose to edit or leave as is. Record your thoughts about it. Or you can simply write about it in your journal.

Whatever you decide to do, let's do Christmas together. I'll try to post something Christmassy everyday for you to come and read. Merry Christmas everyone. Or as Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us, everyone!"