BEHOLD, THE FIRST

Hello friends, Romans, Adventians!  I suppose that Advent started officially for most religious folks on Sunday, but in our German-American household, we rang it in today.  My husband developed this nifty system for our refrigerator when we realized our old traditional Advent calendar is missing: 

 It was pretty sweet to see him get so engaged with something, so I'll go ahead and assume Advent must have been a big deal in his house.  In my house we were like, could you throw more colored lights and tencil on our fake tree?  And while you're at it, bend that pipe cleaner branch a little to the left.  I can't see Grandma's crocheted angel with the shiny beads sewn in from the this angle.  Now pass the funnel cake.

Seriously, though,  I'm trying to embrace this tradition for so many reasons.  One being that it's my last shot to cram all my resolutions into a short period of time before year's end.  So all I have to do this month is reconstruct my marriage, write a play, try to teach my speech delayed daughter how to communicate miraculously through a handheld device, potty train both my kids, and work out daily.  Oh!  And write, like, 20 blog posts.

Does anyone else feel like this at year's end?  And on top of all that, it's the middle of winter and that tiny window of time between our two American holidays when I want to do exactly zero. So right when I should be driving it all home (or cramming it all in or however you want to say it), all I really want to do is hang out with people, drink wine, watch telly, and go to bed early every other night.



Yet I persist!  I will persist, dear reader, and in so doing bring you daily updates about all things Advent related.  Which actually means I will bend loose themes and associations of Advent to light a fire (very Advent) under my ass to get these long delayed posts out of my head and onto your screen.

And so we're off.  I hope you'll take this adventure with me.  After typing a few paragraphs, I'm already getting excited.  And speaking of firsts, here are a few other firsts from our fall worth sharing:

First Ketogenic Birthday Cake, made by a dear friend for my birthday and my son's which are a week apart, so our daughter could join in the cake fun.  Reaffirming my suspicion:  Friends are the best!  Particularly those that bake miracles.

First Time Henny Wore These Clothes (okay, that's a lame one, but how can I resist when she's this friggin cute?)

First day it felt slightly cold in Texas in the last 8 months

First time I saw a squirrel eat a taco

First Pixie Cut

First time I saw my friend's face screen printed on a T-shirt

Hope your year was also full of firsts.  The fun kind, that is!  More tomorrow-

XOXO