Advent

 Today is Advent Sunday, the beginning of the season for preparation of Christmas.  We can sing O Come O Come Emmanuel now.  I have never had an Advent Calendar and they did not feature in my life at a Catholic Convent and were unheard of as far as I am aware.  It was only later in my life that Advent Calendars appeared and I  understood them to have been of German origin and the German way of celebrating the four weeks leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ.  The Advent calendar has now been totally taken over as a commercial entity in Britain.   

At my school we had Advent prayers and candle lighting each week and the emphasis was on preparing the crib and the feeling of hope for mankind.  On the last day before school broke up we would have the Christmas Party laid on by the nuns which was a special afternoon tea before we were collected from school.  I remember jellies and always at least one child would be sick.  

I will prepare my crib on the table in preparation for hope, peace, joy and love, one for each week of Advent.    Each Sunday I will add a further part of the crib.

I bought my crib figures when I was travelling in the Azores, a Catholic country part of Portugal.  The making of the figures is a tradition on the islands.   I have also added other figures and animals although would like to have all of them from the Azores as they are very special.  However, I will not be making another visit to those islands so must make up the crib with what I have here. 

There is no more special time than the joy of Christmas is coming in the Church.