Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Advent 2010 #1

If I were a very linear person this post would have been on the 1st of December to initiate an advent series of posts or on November 30 as an introduction to what it is I like about this season. But here it is, the 7th and I am finally posting this note. I do have a number of thoughts that would make a nice series of reflections. If there are no more posts in my Advent series then the thoughts were not as grand as I had originally thought. Here goes, Advent 2010, #1. 
This perspective of our Christmas tree is the view from where I sit each morning. There will be no big crowds in the house this season but I went ahead and put up the tree so that the season felt like Christmas. I even did it when you are supposed to, Thanksgiving weekend. That is in the rule book somewhere.
I love Advent. Perhaps because it is one of the traditions that helped define our family. I don't recall ever hearing anything about Advent as a child. And it only became a part of my life as a parent with young children and a very crafty wife - crafty as in handicrafts - who made our advent calendars. I am not sure they are still called calendars when they involve lots of moving parts and do not resemble the one chocolate a day Trader Joe's Advent calendar that I almost bought myself this year.
The one above is 44 inches wide by 24 inches high. There are movable pieces for each day with a short story, two to three sentences. In the upper left the angel is announcing the news. In the lower right of the you will see the wise men on their way to Bethlehem. Just so you know the effort of that went into Marsh's project, the wise man with the purple vest has about 21 separate pieces and in the wise man next to him there are 24 separate pieces. She made it with a group, each person doing the same few pieces over and over. 
The idea was that we would read the story, then one of our three girls would get to move or place the figure on the appropriate number. One of the other girls would get to place a figure on the other advent calendar. The next day the girls would rotate the roles, and if all went well the wise men and the shepherds would work their way to the manger about the time Mary and Joseph arrived. The placement of the pieces was based on a strict rotation similar to the annual placement of the angel on top of the tree, seat selection in the car, role assigned for dish duty, and other family traditions.
Like I mentioned, Advent was not part of my childhood. I do remember pulling out the same ornaments year after year and putting the tinsel on the tree. One of the most fun traditions during the Albuquerque period was lighting the luminarias. We put them on the wall and on the roof of our adobe house. This is a really great tradition for a 10 or 11 year old boy. I am so glad my parents provided the opportunity. Matches, fire, climbing on the walls and on the roof to light the candles. Bags catching fire only to need to be replaced added to the joy of the season. (What were my parents thinking!)  You could walk for blocks and almost every house would have them, or so it seemed to me. Later on, some of our neighbors during the Iowa or Kansas periods would put them out, but the luminarias lost their lustre as they were somehow unnatural and foreign to mid-western mores. Unnatural, and not too fun if it happened to be snowing or icing or 5 degrees outside. Not in Albuquerque anymore Toto.

But back on topic, I was not totally ignorant of what Christmas was all about. That would have been impossible in the culture that surrounded me. But the religious aspects of the holiday had nothing to do with me or my family as far as I knew. It was not something I was steeped in, it simply seeped in a tiny bit the culture. It probably does not seep in quite so much today. It was not until I was 17 that I really began to understand what Christmas was all about and then another 15 years or so until Advent finally struck me. But those are stories for another day. 

Only 18 more days...

2 comments:

Traveller said...

Great post. I, too, enjoy the traditions we've built because they remind me of great times with our precious children. We are building new memories now. The kids aren't home to fight over who gets to put the angel on the top of the tree, but we will still have an exciting time together after Christmas this year.

brenna said...

Our pastor had a great sermon last week about how the traditions of Christmas are spiritual disciplines that remind us that Jesus was born. Things like decorating and baking are good times to practice allowing the everyday to be made holy. It reminded me of the way that you still pull out all the decorations and go through the hassle even though you don't have small children around anymore.