Adventuresome

Waiting is never easy, nor always welcome; but waiting can be a time of expectancy, hope and adventure. When our children were young, we tried some things to teach them about Advent and waiting. We made a little family Advent wreath and each child would take turns reading the scripture and/or lighting the candles on the four Sunday nights before Christmas. We also waited until Christmas Eve to put up our tree. In fact, one year we were so late in picking up our tree from the Tree Farm that we got a telephone call asking when we were coming to cut our tree. We kept the advent wreath tradition but alas, gradually we weakened and gave in to our children on the "wait until the Eve for the tree" idea.

One year when Bob was pastor of the UMC in Hilo, the children received so many gifts from church members that we were overwhelmed. So we decided to have the children open only some of their gifts on Christmas morning and save the rest for the remaining eleven days of Christmas. Well, it went okay for a few mornings but Bob got tired of waiting for the children (and me) to wake up in the morning. He would try to rush us through the process so he could get over to his office. We were trying to instill in our children that Christmastide begins on December 25 and does not end until January 6. Well, we got that across to them, but after waiting and waiting for Christmas morning to arrive, they were not anxious to wait anymore.

These days we are trying to simplify gift giving and making it more meaningful by giving to causes such as Heifer Project, Habitat for Humanity, etc. in honor of a relative or friend. This year the adult members of the Fiske side are picking names of each other to reduce expenditure of time and money. Maybe next year we can simplify more! We keep trying!