Second Sunday of Advent

This year the Advent calendar is a bit confusing.  Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, that made the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend the first Sunday of Advent, from a church perspective.  Starting Advent in November, however, throws off every piece of Advent ritual around my house.  The little Christmas tree that sits in the middle of our dining room table this time of year has 24 ornaments.  The Advent  Book that we read every night presents us with the same dilemma.  All this confusion led us to put up the manger scene early this year, but not start our nightly Advent ritual until this past Thursday.

Anyway, for this second Sunday of Advent, the children's choir at church sang.  It hit me while Drew was singing that this is another "last" for me:  after 13 consecutive years, it's the last time I'll have a child singing in the children's choir at Christmastime.

I love this time of year!