FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT --HOPE--

As our church service began today we lit the first candle of Advent season, the candle of Hope. About 700 years before the birth of Jesus Isaiah spoke of the coming of a "tender root" that would be the hope of the Gentiles. The hope candle today represents the hope we as Christians have in God and His promises to us.

I love this time of year in church and find myself tearing up more than once during the services.
Today we also celebrated the fifth anniversary of our associate Pastor's time with us. Craig has done a wonderful job in the past 5 years.
We had beef stew in the crock pot for lunch with some cornbread,yum. It was a good change from the turkey of the past couple weeks.
We had #1 son,d-in-love,g-son and daughter for lunch. #2 son got in about 6:00 from a trip with some of his friends so he was still sleeping and Aaron and Rebekah are visiting family.
After lunch and a nice visit everyone went home to begin Christmas decorating.
So did I, I got my manger scene set up outside and a couple other things outside while the weather is so nice. Sunny and about 50 degrees is perfect for decorating. I can think of times when the wind was whipping and it was ice cold that wasn't any fun at all.
I had to cut the decorating short to bake some cookies to take to church and do the chores early and get ready for our church's "hanging of the greens" service tonight.
#2 son came by to eat a late lunch while we got ready.
This is how the church looked when we got there and we were getting things organized.

This service is one of my favorites, I can't decide which I like better, this one or the candle light service on Christmas eve.
The children carried in all the nativity scene figures and then sang Away in a Manger for us, they did a fantastic job. (g-son is in the red striped shirt in the front row)

 We all had ornaments to put the two huge trees. G-son was so excited he went back up with another ornament.  That is him in the red striped shirt on the right side of the tree, stretching to reach as high as he can.

It was a beautiful service and then we had a fellowship with treats downstairs afterward. We enjoyed more fellowship with our church family as we ate some of the yummy goodies.
Hubbie and I made it home around 8:00 and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.
I pray that your Sunday was special also as December begins and the Christmas season kicks into high gear.  May each day be filled with blessings and may there be hope and joy in every heart.

Good Night and God Bless.