Headlong Into Advent

Thanksgiving has passed, and we are now fully into the Holiday Frenzy. We embraced the frenzy fully on "Black Friday" when my brother and I took his family into New York City to see some of the sights, have dinner, and see 9:00 p.m. showing of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. I generally try to avoid the City the day after Thanksgiving, but this was one of the few times the whole family was here, and my brother really wanted to make the trip and see the show with his wife and kids. We had a good time.

Saturday we celebrated my mother's birthday early, which was the whole point of this family reunion. I would say "just a quiet dinner at home," but that just is not possible with four kids ranging in age from 9 to 19 and my brother and me. Two generations of sibling bantering--not to mention three generations of parent-child bantering. And, of course, we took some family pictures, including a couple of just me and my brother. After 45 years, now that I've lost enough hair to match his hairline and his hair has become as gray as mine, we finally look like brothers.

Late Saturday afternoon they left to return to Pennsylvania. Mom and Bill can reclaim their house, and I have my apartment back. The two youngest slept on air mattresses on my floor, which makes things pretty crowded in a 450 square foot apartment. Especially with the 14-year-old being taller than everyone in the family! Fortunately, we did not spend a lot of time there. When we were not sleeping we played Carcassonne together, or the youngest played computer games while the 14-year-old and I did crossword puzzles. Then we would pile into the car and drive over to Mom's.

I have completed about half of my Christmas shopping, but only because I bought some things while on my various trips around and out of the country. That does not mean I will have a calm prayerful Advent, however. Work promises to be especially stressful over the next few months, between various ongoing projects, a major conference, and the reorganization. I have some projects for church to work on. The first big cluster of family birthdays falls around this time. And I have friends that need my attention.

Generally, this means that, no matter how intentionally I start out, Advent is over before I have a chance to breathe and sit quietly. Sometimes, if I am lucky, God sneaks up on me, and I have a few quiet moments of calm in the midst of the frenzy.

Peace,
Jeffri