Advent Focus: Rest

Our church observes Advent on the four Sundays preceding Christmas. I love it. I love the candles, the readings, the meditation time, the songs and so on. Each year, our leadership picks a theme for our advent reflection and this year, the theme is rest.

Very good theme for this time of year, don't you think? It's the Monday after Thanksgiving and I'm already exhausted! True, I have a cold, so that prevented me from sleeping well last night, but how could I be exhausted after three days at my parents house during which I did NOTHING but eat, rest, play games, cuddle babies (I blame them for the cold), talk with my family, you get the picture.

But we've also had house guests that last two weekends and will again this weekend, and while that's all lovely and I truly enjoy sharing our home, it does impact my alone time. Now, as I wait for the minutes to tick away so I can go home, get into cozy clothes and eat my homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner, I feel aware that this lack of alone time has affected me more than I thought.

How does one get alone time during the holidays? Don't the holidays mean exactly the opposite of alone time? And don't I want that? I love time with family. But with my birthday, Christmas, New Year's and our anniversary all in the next 5 weeks, I'm going to have to pace myself.

Rest. Yes, this is a great advent theme.

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Not everything went according to my plan this year, but many things did. And many things I never even thought to hope for happened, giving me many things for which to be thankful. As Thanksgiving approaches (yay!! I heart Thanksgiving!), I wanted to share a few things that I'm grateful for.

• I am VERY thankful for my husband. When we got married, I had high expectations about how our marriage would be and how we would feel about each other. Our two years of marriage have WAY exceeded my expectations. I am pretty much daily reminded about what a good gift Ian is.
• I am also very thankful for our home. Without my parents' generous investment, we would not have this home, or perhaps a home ever, at all. And we love our home. We love living in it, entertaining in it, working on it, relaxing in it, cooking in it and more. If you haven't been over and you're reading this, GET OVER TO OUR HOUSE NOW! (Well, maybe not now. Ian's grandparents are coming in town on Sunday and will be staying with us for about 9 days, so we'll be a little full. But come soon!)
• I know everyone expects this, but the truth is, I am very thankful for my family. I get to see my sisters every Monday night, my Sunukjian sister-in-laws once a month for a ladies night, my McCurry sister-in-law every Tuesday morning for prayer, several of my nieces and nephews at church, and that's just the regular stuff. I am so happy we live so close to our family and get to be intimately involved in their lives.
• This year, I've gotten to see more of my college friends than in years past and I'm so thankful for that. I had such an amazing experience at Biola and made some really wonderful friends and it blesses my heart that I still get to see and be involved in so many of their loves. I love you girls!

I could go on and on (and will, in my Christmas letter), but I'll wrap this up for now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday!

I love Fridays. I named my bike Friday - Fridays promise fun, freedom, exploring and relaxation, everything my beach cruiser promises. Which reminds me, I need to go for a bike ride soon!

Anyway, as we go into the weekend, I'm looking forward to a little resting and a lot of fun.

It's been a busy week, with a large work event last night, so I feel my weekend is especially well deserved. Here's a few things I'm going to do:

• Cuddle on the couch and watch a movie with Ian
• See a college friend for tea and a lovely chat on Saturday
• Baby sit one of our nephews so my sister-in-law and her husband can celebrate their anniversary
• Shop! We get to fill two Operation Christmas Child boxes and get gifts for two Long Beach foster kids. So watch out Target, because here I come!
• Read
• Sip lots of coffee
• Sleep in

Happy weekend to everyone!

Waldo and Wenda!

On Sunday, Ian and I worked at our church's carnival. It's the great neighborhood event where 3,500 people come for a free, safe Halloween experience. We worked one of the game booths (a hockey game that was very difficult, but fun nonetheless) and then hung out after our shift with family and friends.

We were Waldo and Wenda, his girlfriend starting in the second book (or something like that). It was very fun to be themed together and something most people recognized. We got quite a few, "I found you!" throughout the night, which was fun.



Sarah and Mary's families were also at the event. I don't have a photo yet from Mary's family (they were the Cinderella story past midnight) but here is one of Sarah's family. They are the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Sarah and Eric are Momma and Poppa Bear, Levi is Baby Bear, Caleb is the broken chair, Noah is the bowl of porridge and Hannah is Goldilocks, of course! (Though she does look a bit concerned about the whole situation, which I guess is fitting to the story!)



Happy Halloween!