Needs vs. Wants

I've been thinking a lot about needs versus wants lately. Somehow in December, along with a whole host of other folks, I am more likely to give in to wants than in the first 11 months of the year.
My inlaws arrive tomorrow for a two week visit. We are excited that they'll be here for Christmas, but at the same time I've felt a bit of added pressure (self-induced) to make sure there are a "sufficient" number of presents under the tree. Whatever "sufficient" means in this context. They've told us point blank they don't need or want much. That doesn't make things any easier, really.
My friend Carrie has been doing a Christmas countdown video series. I'm finally catching up, and her post from Monday is resonating with me. Go check it out.

Missing a Few

Well, a month of daily, consecutive blog posts has eluded me once again. There you go.
Once I missed the first post, suddenly it wasn't so urgent to write every day. Of course, last week we were at my parents' house two states away, and a daily post meant staying up later than was helpful each night (I took along a novel that never even made it out of my bag!).
Our annual Thanksgiving vacation was good: spending time with family and friends and hitting a few favorite haunts always feels just right. I could have tacked a few extra days onto our vacation with great gladness, but it also feels really good to be home. What is it about sleeping in your own bed - even if no one in the house sleeps very well, as last night - that feels so good?
We arrived home late-evening yesterday, and hit the ground running. G got the car unloaded (we came home with WAY more stuff than we headed west with, after more shopping than we should have done...) and I got the first load of laundry into the washing machine. This morning we all overslept after our night of horrible sleep, and I got to the office about 10am, was home for 45minutes of lunch, and didn't get home again until close to 8pm. G got to church for the first Advent midweek soup supper (he even made soup this afternoon!) and then led Evening Prayer and got home just as I was putting the Munchkin to bed.
 Of course we didn't manage to get the house very clean or tidy before we hit the road 10 days ago, so there's still plenty of work left to do around here. My hope is to get all the autumn decorations put away and the first Advent decorations up before the end of the week. We'll see... If the tidying and cleaning get done, and I can get the advent wreath out and the mantel "done" I'll feel pretty good...

What's the state of Advent/Christmas decorating at your house? How ambitious are you this year?

Oh, and before I forget: as promised, Santa Picture #39

My sister's family and my family. The tradition lives!
Too bad the little ones weren't happy about it!

Counting Down the Days til Advent

Advent begins a week from today. And while I know the season of Advent is intended to help us prepare not only to celebrate the coming of Christ the first time around during the 12 days of Christmas, but also to prepare for his coming again, I always end up feeling like I need time to prepare to prepare. I need more time to get ready for Advent than I'm going to get, once again.
I need time to clear some spaces out around the house, to make room for making a welcome, to unclutter so that there's room enough in space and time to wait and watch and be ready.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

Mutual Ministry and Preparing for Advent

We've got a Mutual Ministry Committee, and more often than not, it's a pretty good thing. I've heard the occasional horror story (though it seems most are second or third hand) about such committees that are constitutionally required in many congregations, but which end up having whining/complaining/fix-the-pastor meetings, more than anything else.
I really like all the parishioners on the committee, and value the time we get with them, though sometimes I wish we had an excuse to have the kinds of conversations we do with other small groups in the congregation, too. Tonight I asked them what they need from their community of faith during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. I want to make what we do as a community meaningful and faith-forming, not just one more thing people feel stressed out about when they commit to participating, or feel guilty about when they don't participate. I think sometimes less can be more, but only if we slow down enough to recognize the more - and I want to help people notice what's going on around them, and within them.
What do YOU need during Advent this year? Who could help you find/have it?

Mary's Song

I'm preaching this weekend, and so have the Magnificat on the brain. It's not a bad state to be in, really, though I'm still waiting on the Spirit to help me narrow down my sermon. My tendency lately is to have more than one sermon mushed together, which isn't exactly helpful. We'll be singing "Canticle of the Turning," a hymn I like a lot, despite the fact that we all end up sounding so cheerful about a turning upside down of the status quo. I'm not so sure those of us who really are pretty privileged, in the grand scheme of things, should be quite so happy about the rich being sent away empty... Anyway, thinking about Mary's song also made me think about this song I was glad to stumble upon a while back. The singer is Catherine Hessler, a UW classmate of mine (we took Scandinavian linguistics together, and maybe one or two other classes - she studied Swedish while I studied Norwegian, and we were both involved in the university ministries at University Presbyterian Church - she much more so than I). The song's composer, Katie Freeze, can be seen at the keyboard in the video (she was a couple of years behind us at UW, and also a UPC-er). As Catherine writes on her website: "How Many Angels" is Mary’s Song, an interpretation of the reflections of this new young mother after the baby Jesus was born. Mary holds the little miracle in her arms and knows that the angels too rejoice over his life. A life that will change the world. Mary considers both the enormity and the grace of her situation. With wonder and humility she embraces the truth that God chose her to play a beautiful role in the life of the Savior. Hope you like the song.

Sleeping On It

It was a good day for us today. Between services we had our children's Christmas program, including some musical offerings and poetry readings from the middle school and high school youth. We are blessed with some extremely talented youth - I just wish I had a video camera to record and post some of their songs. Alas... I attended a good Nominating Committee meeting - one of those things they never teach you about in seminary... We had planned for a couple of weeks to put our Christmas tree up tonight. So, after a serious vacuuming and mopping of the laminate floor that never stays clean for more than about 30 seconds, we brought in the box, which takes both of us to carry. We bought a nice pre-lit artificial tree in Phoenix, where real trees were not only incredibly expensive but also extreme fire dangers. Living in Montana, it's tempting to trade it for a real tree, but this year we decided to save the money nad use what we've got. We got the base out, no problem, and the bottom section, inserted in the base and nicely fluffed. The lights plugged in and turned on, all twinkly. The second section of the tree was a little trickier, but we got it. After that, not so much. There's just no way to get a nine foot tree to stand up in a room with eight foot ceilings, no matter how much you try to bend that top section. Of course in our haste to get the whole thing put together we missed at least one of the electrical connections, too, so even the sections we did get put together won't all light up. We decided to take it all apart and start over. Only the first two sections are now stuck together. Even lifting the two sections out of the base and playing tug of war with them wouldn't unstick them. The base and bottom two sections are now out in the garage, hoping the cold temperature out there will miraculously make it easier to get it fixed in the morning. And yes, assuming we can get the lights all figured out, we're still going with the nine footer, just not the top foot or so. We're going to need a much bigger star...

Only One Thing

I've got only one thing to say tonight: Amen, come Lord Jesus.