First you find a big rock to sit on, preferably with Dad.

You stop to look at what’s in front of you. This time, it’s Mom with a camera.

Then once you’ve sat a while, it’s time to jump.

I am thankful to have had space this morning to begin to pray and journal about the upcoming Advent season. I was thinking of words and phrases that I hope embody our family’s celebration of Christmas this year: simple, joyful, focused on serving others, welcoming Jesus and others into our home.

I am thankful for a church that prepares us weekly, through liturgy, for the light coming into our darkness. Annie writes in Some Assembly Required that “Advent says that healing is coming here, and it will be okay.”

To me, this means that even if I barely know how to tame and simplify this season that is all bluster and buying and big and bellowing, Jesus comes. His light helps me see. I get to practice looking for the light and helping my children look too.

TJ already bought the kids two different Lego Advent calendars, so I’m sure those will be a highlight of their evenings. I bought an Advent book called Unwrapping the Names of Jesus that I hope will feed our imaginations for all the ways Jesus comes to meet us and to heal us.

We’ll shop, but we’ll also sit. My prayer is that we’ll find regular moments as a family to stop being on the move and to see what’s in front of us: each other, our Christmas tree, the people we can serve, the people whose photos come as Christmas cards in the mail, the feast food we’ll enjoy, and the break from school schedules. I pray that the time we invest sitting on the rock, being still to reflect and talk and look for the light, will inform our jumping off into the jumble and joy of the season.