Missing the First Sunday in Advent

I really like the years when Thanksgiving comes earlier.  I like the years when Christ the King Sunday is the Sunday of Thanksgiving week-end.  I don't mind missing that service.  I mind missing the first Sunday in Advent.

We usually leave our family reunion on Saturday and go as far as Jacksonville, where we stay with an old college friend and his wife.  Would they be interested in Advent services?  It's hard to say.

This year, I left our Thanksgiving reunion with a variation of the stomach bug we'd been passing around, so I was not in any shape to go to church.  I spent Advent I sipping ginger ale and nibbling saltines and hoping for the best.

Last night, after we got unpacked, we set up some Christmas ornaments.  We have a tabletop tree which is very small, but my spouse figured out how to the get counted cross stitch Chrismons onto it.  I miss having a big enough tree for all the ornaments we have, but that will have to wait for next year.  This year, the tree would be in the traffic pattern, and we'll have lots of houseguests and visitors.  It's just not feasible.

We have not one, but two Advent wreaths, and I have one at school.  Will we actually light the candles this year?  Our track record isn't good, but we can hope.

I feel the season rushing by already.  I need to focus.

Last night, I changed the markers in my prayer book.  I try to pray the liturgy of the hours that Phyllis Tickle created with her series, The Divine Hours.  In the past years, I've managed the morning prayers and little else.  But last night, I was able to pray Compline.  I read some verses from Isaiah, and I felt my heart relax into the vision of the ancient prophet.

I will continue trying to slow down, to focus, to enjoy Advent.  That is my Advent wish, for me, for us all.