'tis the season...

More each year, I'm feeling a desire to celebrate the Advent season that leads up to Christmas: to build up an anticipation in our own hearts for the coming of Jesus to earth, and the celebration of that coming! So it occurred to me last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, to try to come up with some candle-lighting experience for the boys: one candle the first week, two the second week, and so on.

Due to lack of planning, I ended up just lighting one of our backup candles that we keep on hand for when the electricity goes out (some are in Coke bottles, while some - like this one - are in vodka bottles that we bought when they were filled with roasted, salted peanuts).

And we even ended up getting a Christmas tree from friends, which is set up and sparkling with two strings of LED lights (those, too, will keep shining even if the electricity goes out!)

Tonight, John said to me, "Mama, you HAVE to come take a picture of the moon!" This photo certainly does no justice to the gorgeous full, yellow moon that we were admiring. Being that it's December and all, I imagined how beautiful it will be looking tonight (the later version of tonight that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic) as the moonlight shines a long path across Minnesota snow.

I do miss the snow, but I also appreciate the fact that my boys could run outside post-bath, wearing only their shorts, to admire the full moon. That couldn't happen in Minnesota this time of year! 

Another advantage of living in a tropical climate is that even in December, if you are agile enough, you can still shimmy up the coconut tree in the front yard like a little monkey (and indeed, John does claim that he learned his mad climbing skills from our very own Curious George of yesteryear). I have no doubt John could quickly make it to the very top of the tree, but don't worry: we've come to an agreement that he must stop before reaching the height of the power line.

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