Sorry I missed yesterday's song. :-) For today...Josh Groban's "Little Drummer Boy."
This song is way awesome! And hey, if you have a Christmas song that you love and would like to share, leave a link in the comments. :-)

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

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully relaxing day, a delicious dinner, and delightful company!

Do any of you have traditions for Thanksgiving? Something that makes this day special to you? Every year, without fail, my family listens to one Christmas song. It's just a taste of the season to come and we hold off listening to Christmas music until about two-three weeks before Christmas. We don't want to rush the season!:-)

But on Thanksgiving, we listen to Nat King Cole's "O Holy Night." I love it. :-)

God Bless,
Amy

Updating....

I am playing with my blog settings so things might look a little strange around here for a while. :-)

Clear as Day...

I'm not  hugely into country music. Don't get me wrong, I like it and I own quite a bit of country stuff, it's just not my first pick of music.
However, I love Scotty McCreery's debut CD, "Clear as Day."
I love how deep and rich Scotty's voice is and the songs on the album suite his voice and style perfectly. It's the kind of country music that I really like.
What impressed me the most about Scotty McCreery is how respectful and mature he is for his age. It's very nice to see a young man actually behave like a young man. And even with his fast rise to fame, he seems very unassuming.
I enjoyed the whole album but there were a few songs in particular that I really liked. "Water Tower Town," is really fun and I like the praise of 'small town' living. "I Love You This Big," is just sweet.  It's the sort of song you could dance to. "Dirty Dishes" is really good. I don't really know why I like it so much but it is one of my favorites.

Overall, I think the album is completely worth buying. I don't remember one song that I didn't like. Even if you don't like country, give this album a chance. I might also add that I think this CD would make a lovely Christmas present if you happen to know someone that is really into this sort of music. :-)It's a very well done album I am looking forward to what Scotty McCreery will do musically in the future.


God Bless, Everyone!
Amy

And it has begun...

This is what I saw out of my window this morning. Not a whole lot of snow, to be sure, but snow none the less.

Winter is here and here to stay for a good long time I'm guessing.
I guess I should just be glad that the snow held off till November.

And there are good things about
winter, I guess. Like hot chocolate
which can't be completely enjoyed
until the weather is cold. And scarves.
Scarves are fun...

"The more it

SNOWS-tiddely-pom,

The more it

GOES-tiddely-pom,

The more it

GOES-tiddely-pom,

On

Snowing.

And nobody
KNOWS-tiddely-pom,
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom,
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom,
Are
Growing."     The House at Pooh Corner.