Celebrating Advent Repost

Last year I wrote a series of posts on how our family keeps Advent a holy season of penance and preparation before the arrival of Christmas. Throughout the next few weeks I'll be reposting some or all of these ideas, not only for the newer readers of this blog, but as a reminder for our own family to keep our Advent traditions alive so that we may more fully understand and celebrate Christmas.

Advent is just around the corner and I have been deep in thought, considering how to make Advent more meaningful for myself and my family. Advent is a period of waiting, anticipation, and penance for Catholics. Those who observe Advent faithfully, do not allow Christmas to encroach upon this season of waiting too quickly. Our family has many traditions for Advent we've developed throughout the years and I thought we might share some of these ideas and traditions with you throughout Advent this year.

Here is Celebrating Advent Idea #1:

Do your Christmas shopping BEFORE Advent. I try very hard to do this. I want our focus to be on preparing for the arrival of the Christ Child, not on the arrival of gifts. If I'm stressing over what to get this person or the next I'm not able to focus on preparing my own heart. This takes some planning to accomplish and we have simplified much of our Christmas buying in order to manage doing this each year, but it is well worth the effort. As of this post, I have 90% of the Christmas shopping finished and I will be completely finished by the end of the this first week of Advent. You cannot imagine how much having this piece in place eases my mind and my heart.

May you and yours have a Holy and Blessed Advent!