Melody Within

It's the first Sunday of Advent! Advent is probably my favorite season of the year. I love everything about Advent.
For those of you who may not know what Advent is exactly, it's simply the four weeks of preparation for Christmas. You see, Christmas doesn't come until Christmas! :-) It's the time we prepare for the coming of the infant Saviour, we decorate, clean, bake...all that wonderful Christmas-y stuff. And we should also prepare our souls for Christ's coming. Do some Christmas cleaning in our souls.
For Catholics', it's the time we make some extra sacrifices and perhaps say some extra prayers. It's actually rather fun.
One of the things that little kids really like (and big kids too, actually, though they probably wouldn't admit it!:-) is to fill and empty manger with straw for Jesus' coming.  The straw, weather it's simply strands of construction paper or strips of cloth or even real straw if you happen to have it handy, represents sacrifice and prayer. So every time you do a little sacrifice or say a prayer, you can put straw in the manger. It's a great visual for children and it does make those sacrifices so much more palatable. We want the Baby to be comfortable. ;-)

If you don't have an Advent wreath, you should really get one. They look like this...

                                                              

                                                                           Or this...

Or this...

Who wouldn't want one of these gracing their table? :-) The four candles represent the weeks of Advent. We put a white candle in the middle to be lit on Christmas Day. If you want to read more about the Advent wreath, go HERE.

As I said; Advent is my favorite time of the year. :-) I have a lot of fun posts planned for Advent. Decoration ideas, how to make wreaths...oh, and I am hoping to post a Christmas song every day from now till Christmas. I have loads of awesome Christmas music that I want to share with you all. :-) Staring with this gorgeous song...'Veni, Veni, Emanuel.' which means, 'Oh come, Oh come, Emanuel.' It's an Advent song. :-)

Here are the lyrics in English, if you're interested.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.





Until my next post! Oh, and take a look at Cat's post at World Crafter
God Bless,
Amy