and now we start all over

So, the husband just left to go back to Korea yesterday. He had been gone for six and a half months and he'll be gone for another 11 before he comes home for good. It was nice to have him home, and we didn't want to give him up, but at least this time will be the last time he'll ever have to leave us. At this point I'm honestly just used to him not being here and doing things on my own, but I know the kids will miss him desperately.

We're headed into the holidays! Thanksgiving is next week and then the season of Advent begins! I need to check through our Jesse tree ornaments so that if we're missing any I can make them ahead of time, and I need to dig around the boxes in the garage and find out Advent wreath and candles. Last year was our first year to celebrate Advent and I definitely want it to be a family tradition. Advent wreaths and the Jesse tree are such an excellent way of daily keeping Christ the focus of the season.

Tonight we're headed to home church at the Snow's for some food, fellowship, and study. I love going over there. It's such a positive and encouraging environment. Not that my regular Sunday morning church, Frontline, is negative by any means, because it isn't. It's just that home church is a more intimate setting where you can interject your own observations or words from the Holy Spirit into the lesson in a way that would be total chaos in a Sunday morning service where there are significantly more people.

Time to start getting the young'uns ready to go!

What do you do to celebrate Christmas that is different from the way "the world" celebrates Christmas?

That has really been on my heart lately as now my boys are more aware of things and I really want to impress upon them that Christmas is about Jesus, not about goodies and presents and Santa. We already don't do Santa (per hubby's request actually), but I don't think the Christian life should just be about the things we avoid. I think even more so it should be embodied by the things we DO participate in. When I was growing up in a christian household, i knew Christmas was to celebrate Jesus' birth, but I really didn't see what we were doing to actually do that. We did Santa and had a tree and presents and basically celebrated Christmas just like many non-believers celebrate Christmas. I figure if we are christians, then the way we celebrate should be different. Does that make sense? I don't want to just celebrate Jesus and his birth with my words, but with my actions, too. This year I was thinking we could do advent and a Jesse tree. We never did either when I was growing up. In fact, I had never even heard about advent until a year or two ago and even that was just hearing the word, not really what it was about. I had never heard of a Jesse tree until this past week or so. It was suggested to me by a mom on Christian Homeschool Fellowship when I asked how I could do more in the home to teach my kids about Christ.

Since we don't do Santa anyway, I want zero Santa paraphenalia in my home. I'm not going to shield them from Santa Claus stuff outside the home, (How could I? It's everywhere!) but I do want to make it clear in the way we celebrate that Santa is not 'the reason for the season' and one way to do that that I can see would be to eliminate that icon (unless it is in a historical context) from my home. Truthfully, I don't really want ANY sort of icon or image that doesn't directly involve the biblical standpoint.

What are some things you do to put the focus on Christ during the Christmas season?