Katheryn shared today's F.F. over at RevGalBlogPals. (The Elf collage is my grandaughter, Trinity, some time back.)
Whether a RevGal or a Pal most of us in this cyber community have enhanced responsibilities during this time of year. We also have traditions - religious and secular - that mark the season for us in a more personal way. For this Friday Five please let us know five of the things that mark the season for you.
1. The thing I miss about not being the pastor of a church during this season is the Advent wreath. Growing up Southern Baptist, and then hopping over to the Assemblies of God. I never heard of Advent. The first time I saw one I was in my late 20s. My husband was invited to speak at a series of classes at a Lutheran Church in the Washington D.C. area. It was a lovely old church building, the sort that appealed to my aesthetic lil soul. I wandered around, admiring the stained glass, pipe organ, lovely carved pews--and suspended from the ceiling over the altar area was an enormous Advent wreath of evergreen boughs and holly and large white candles. It looked so unique, Christmasy--something I had seen in pictures of European churches. I love the symbolism of the Advent wreath, the candles, readings, etc.
2. Christmas music...love it! Especially the glorious, soaring type. I LOVE Handel's "Messiah."
3. Light. The more the merrier.
4. Baking orange nut bread and Jule Kaga. The orange nut bread recipe comes from my mother, and is the most delicious nut bread imaginable. Find it over at The Owl's Kitchen. The other comes from my husband's Norwegian family. Both are musts. I so enjoy Christmas baking, especially if music is playing in the background. And, of course, it's nice to eat them as well.
5. Snow! Growing up in California where it might be 65 balmy degrees on Christmas Day, one thing I do like about Christmas in the upper Midwest is that most of the time we will have a beautiful, white Christmas. I do get very tired of snow by the time April rolls around, but I love it when the dusting of snow on everything is real snow.
And the bonus? Tell us one thing that does absolutely nothing for you.
Santa. I know, the St. Nick story is great. But Santa Claus? Not so much. Bah, humbug. (Except for when he is my sweetie.) Pics of that as soon as I can download them next week.
8 comments:
Your pictures are wonderful!! I'm so glad that I am finally a grandma!
Maybe a recipe will appear as well???
Right there with you on Santa. I'm trying to downplay that with our kids without making them the obnoxious kids who "let out the secret."
I love lighting our Advent wreaths, all three of my Chapels have them it is so meaningful, We write a different liturgy every year.
As for the bonus right with you on Santa :-)
I always enjoyed Santa as a child and mother of little kids, but now that everyone pretty much knows I'm Santa, I like that better. What a lovely collage by the way!
Check out the advent wreath photos i posted. Racine ag invited families to come last sunday nite for a potluck and they had all the stuff for wreaths
Great list. Thank you for playing!
Thank you for visiting my blog, and for your prayers.
I so agreed with a lot of your comments. Santa seems to have taken over from Jesus as the meaning of Christmas.
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