First Advent celebrations

It was a lovely Sabbathed day of celebration for Kendall and I. We had a choir (Bethany Christian High) in for the morning service, and that's always fun. Kendall also led the congregational singing, which he enjoys.

Then this afternoon we rolled and baked peppernuts with our friends, each with our own styles. It's fun to see them all make one huge pile at the end. I'd love to see this become an annual tradition for us - getting together with friends to make peppernuts, in time for Saint Nick.




We stopped in quickly at our friend Samantha's birthday party - they were making Danish paper stars - but we had to go before we learned how to make them ourselves. :(

We were heading out to Kern Road Mennonite Church for the annual 'Hanging of the Greens' service. They have a chili supper, then we made Christmas ornaments, and there was a service surrounding the decoration of the sanctuary with caroling. What fun.

So it's been a day of celebration. It's so important, I think, to find time to joyfully mark the different moments of our lives and the seasons of the year. Celebration is foundational to our ability to make sense of living, and to be rooted in joy and love. Celebration also helps us carve out space for wonder, and even, perhaps, room in our imagination for God.

My friend Mary Ruth Kamp is the Acting Director of Wilderness Wind camp in Ely, MN. In the newsletter this fall she wrote about celebration, saying, "In choosing celebration we do not push away the hard times and the pain that we experience; rather in choosing to celebrate more of life, we are drawn into a more palpable awareness and experience of God's compassionate presence." This same friend quoted a children's book by Byrd Taylor recently, titled I'm in Charge of Celebrations: "Last year I gave myself one hundred and eight celebrations - besides the ones they close school for". How delightful.

Why not celebrate? Happy first Advent, all of you.