advent

Tomorrow is Advent Sunday. Advent. It's full of anticipation, mist and mystery, frost, sparkle, and hope. Hope, not fingers-crossed hope, but really, positive hope, hope for change in and around us. And it's demanding, too, because if there is a possibility of change we must be ready to change, and make changes in the world. It is the opening of a door. It tingles. Christmas is when heaven meets earth, and Advent is when we prepare for it.

I've been making Advent wreaths, one for a church and one for home. Tomorrow, we'll light them and sing. One of my German friends taught me to make advent wreaths - people from Germany and thereabouts are good at Advent and Christmas.

And this morning I had the most wonderful, unexpected surprise. A package too big to get through the letterbox proved to be the most unexpected and perfect present. My elder son had sent me a large and stunningly beautiful Germann advent calendar, all the more exciting for not being anticipated. I had to tell you about this, but I can't begin to explain how beautiful it is or how happy it makes me.