Advent!

'Tis the season of Advent!  For you Latin nerds: ad=to; vent=come.  So, the season "to come."  A season of preparation.  You all think I am talking about Christmas?  Well, yes, that and our preparations for all our future amazement.  You may hear this again soon, but it is such a perfect analogy.
How are you preparing to celebrate the Lord's great gift to us?  I'd love to hear some of your traditions of advent.  Caleb and I are working on some Latin prayers and reading different prophesies and accounts of Jesus' birth in school.  We've not had the myth of the bearded guy in many years since Caleb's Papa Carney is a ringer, so it is easy for us to focus on the deeper meaning of Christmas.

Caleb and Papa Carney 3 years ago!

Our Bible study tonight focused on Joy.  We shared storied of all the stereotypical events that bring us joy, but realized how we overlook the joy in everyday life.  Remembering that joy is not always the same as happiness, I challenge you to seek to remember joy can be found in every circumstance.

How is our advent? We just submitted our first prayer letter to be sent out the first week or two of January.  We've been gathering and validating addresses and other contact info so someone actually gets these letters!
David is nearly finished with this semester, so that is quite a relief.  Hopefully he will be finished this Spring--pray with us that some of his life experience credits will be applied ASAP so he can drop some of his classes for the spring!
Our house is getting a bit empty as we sell and pack away our things, but no-one has looked at it lately.  We listed 2 weeks ago with Heartland Realty, so hopefully we'll have some interest soon. 

I hope you all have a joyous celebration of the birth of Christ, our Immanuel!