Thankfully Joyous Thursday Week #2

I actually had something different written for this week's Thankfully Joyous Thursday, but someone, not mentioning full names, D., had an incident with a homeless walrus therefore misplacing the F drive which had most of our pictures on it. His words- not mine. You have to know D. to understand my world. But you know what, these things have a way of working themselves out.

You see, I have always wanted to do an Advent Calendar. I really wanted to make one of my own, but with time constraints I resorted to buying one someone else made from Etsy.
And this leads to what I am joyfully thankful for- old and new traditions. Since the 1st of December, we have been reading a particular scripture relating to the period of Advent and doing some kind of activity. The sad part is the notes haven't exactly made their way into the Advent box, but they will soon. Tonight was extra special because we made a Christingle, meaning Christ Light. And no, that is not a real ice cream cone Gavin is wholeheartedly trying to eat.

Gavin and I have also been counting down the days until Christmas using this chalkboard attached to a Santa bag D.'s boss gave us last year. At this point, Gavin's more interested in taking the toys out of the bag.
D. and I will also continue the tradition of lighting our Christmas wreath we bought when we were newlyweds, which we later found out was an Advent wreath. Driving through the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights is another one of our favorite traditions, but this year that's built into our Advent activities.

But probably one of our most treasured traditions is reading the Christmas story from Luke as well as "Twas the Night Before Christmas," on Christmas Eve. Those things are carried over from my family and I'm pretty sure D.'s family as well.

If you have any traditions you would like to share, please feel free to comment. They could even make their way into our new traditions.