things to do and be still

advent season is upon us, very quickly it almost ran in the door this time. though i have managed to quickly catch up and the advents calendar is hanging, most of the little pockets are filled and we have sat down and sang already twice! wow this is a promising start. the first batch of christmas cookies were backed and elias made a wonderful advents wreath. there is a long list of things to do, some activities we want to do and ideas we want to ponder a bit more before put into action. gifting has been a talking point at many days and the hands have been busy.

but now i have to get things listed, trying to keep my thoughts straight and bundled

1. put the last few gifts into the advents calendar pockets (and leaf some empty for the kids to fill)
2. keep up with my morning runs (3x a week), i just picked this up again as i was in bed with a cold
3. stay calm and enjoy breakfast with the candle lit and the reading of luke, still going well
4. go to the school bazaar with a friend, thea and i went to the bazaar and enjoyed it a lot
5. hang up a mistletoe branch
6. make a winter garland and hang it up, i found the garland in the decoration box and hung it up on the 9th
7. each advents sunday gather at the fire in the garden, enjoy a hot beverage and a short devotion
8. bake grittibaenz for saint nicolas day (dec. 6th), naomi made the dough and we made the baenze after dinner for breakfast
9. make hot chocolate from scratch as a surprise after school snack, done on the 16th
10. go to elias' ballettwerkstatt on saturday the 14th, the whole family went and we had pizza afterward wonderful
11. bake christmas cookies
   - orangen schnittli,done on the 16th
   - schokolade kugel myrta
   - coconut macaroons, done on the 10th
   - totenbeinli, done on the 4th
   - mailaenderli, done on the 6th
   - sandele
   - anis chraebeli, done on the 10th
   - brunsli, done on the 10th
   - lemon hearts, done on the 9th
12. finish the skirt on my needles,  done and ready to be worn on the fourth of advent
13. sitting down now and then, with joel and a mug of spiced cider in our hands
14. writing christmas letters to my friends on time, so far just about half of it done the rest will be late...
15. go to the lemon carving workshop, just for fun and a good chat with friends, did and enjoyed it
16. get some egg nog to enjoy with who ever comes over at the right moment

this is it for the moment, i'm sure there will be more things added to this list, but for now i'm happily looking forward to this coming days of advent. some moments of peace and quiet. this week moments of reflection on the meaning of the 1st candle of advent, hope. the candle draws attention to the anticipation of the coming of the messiah, that weaves its way like a golden thread through the old testament history. and we still hope and expect him to come again.