Advent

It is a new liturgical year!! A time of hopeful waiting before Christmas and the birth of Christ. This is our favorite time of year. So many fun traditions. So many small celebrations on the way to Christmas day.

Despite still having lots of sickies and therefore sleepless nights here we managed to get the house all ready for Advent.

That is, except the Jesse Tree.  No one wanted to venture out to find the perfect branch considering we are still pretty well covered in snow.  So we may be a few days late on starting that this year.

The wreath is ready for lighting.

The mantle is mostly cleared except the Advent calendar and treats that my stepmother sets up for the kids each year.

Our Fontinini nativity set.  Nothing too exciting this year.

The Christmas books taken out

The Holztiger nativity for the littler ones (baby Jesus DOES have a little manger, but I forgot to put it away last year after Christmas.  So I put it someplace for safe keeping until Advent came again, but now I can't remember where that is *sigh*

Playmobil for the bigger ones to play with...and they were quite busy with it as you can see it has been hit by a nerf rocket and looks pretty decimated...perhaps more like modern day Bethlehem?

There is everyone....and then some...I see a few St. Nicholas's in there

And what is a blog post without a baby shot??  She just had a VERY happy first Thanksgivig!