Advent is a season of eager expectation and joyous preparation.

We take joy and hope in the fact that Jesus has come, is Emmanuel (God with us), and is coming again.

Zade and I use an Advent calendar to help prepare our hearts for Christmas. Each December morning leading up to the 25th we open a tin holding an invitation to do something special that day.

This was our first...

The last three years our "tree" has been a branch sawed from an unsuspecting pine, so cutting down a -genuine- tree was quite a treat!

When the tree was at long last chosen it was crowned with our Christmas star.

We discovered this chubby friend in the "discount" section, covered in parasitic pods and long passed over.

It is perfect.

We who are followers of Christ can think upon how God chooses us...

we whom all others would overlook and find wanting...

and crowns us with life.