Advent

Okay.

And I don't think that's something we've done on Christmas morning, though we do read a new Advent book every year.

Oh, cool.

Like you

read it together throughout the Advent season? Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, we'll get that recipe from you and we'll put it, we'll link it in the show notes.

Just go down to the link below to sign up or go over to theartofhomepodcast.com slash subscribe.

Don't forget to request your copy of our Simple Advent Guide and download those playlists.

They make great soundtracks to accompany all the good work you're doing in your home this season.

I will be back next Wednesday with a brand new holiday homemaking episode.

And especially I like the run-up to Christmas.

So the four weeks before, I'm in Germany, I come from Germany, we have the thing so-called Advent with the Christmas markets and we celebrate it very much.

We go out, you drink, you freeze yourself to death, but you love it.

Everybody gets ill before Christmas because we all get our colds then.

it's so sweet.

Oh, we do that every night in Advent.

We

just, as a bedtime story.

All right, we got to head toward the fields today.

And before we go, I just want to begin to lift up our plan for Advent this year.

Advent is a season of great awakening.

And I want us to invite people to go with us.

We've got a wonderful new teacher coming in, Shelby Shutt, a young woman from New York City.

She has suffered much in her life.

She suffered with a disability that is slowly taking away all of her natural mobility.

She's confined to a wheelchair, but she's not confined, okay? She's going to be leading us through the days of Advent toward Christmas, a season of study called Behold.

But other things too, especially as the holiday seasons are coming up, I think I suggested this last year, but I definitely suggest it now.

As we're going to get into even Thanksgiving and then Advent and Christmas will be around the corner, ask your family what they actually care about and you can cross off the other stuff.

I did this last year with Christmas cookies because they just used to make so many Christmas cookies, which is great and we'd gift them and we'd give them away and it's fun, but But it's also expensive, you know, and that was one of the ways last year that I was trying to cut back financially.

So I was like, all right, everybody pick a cookie or two that they really like.

You're being realistic about mealtimes and meals.

We're making sure we have time for prayer and whatnot.

Then how can we also start looking ahead? How can we continue being proactive? How can we look ahead to maybe what we need to do for Advent? Do we need to grab some Advent candles? Do we need to, you know, whatever.

And this also, please hear me when I'm saying like, I just mean baseline, whatever you guys are going to do for Advent.

So make sure to go online, submit your loved one's name, and allow us the honor to be able to pray for them online.

here as we finish up the liturgical year and go into Advent.

But right here, right now, we've got a lot of living to do.

So let's get to our gospel reflection of the day.

We have people thinking of Thanksgiving.

It's very important to stop and think about Thanksgiving.

Right before, you know, all of these readings leading up to Advent, like you mentioned before, the end of time, the end of our days, but also to remember those who preceded us in faith with the saints and our holy dead for whom, in which we should pray.

And so this triduum coming up, maybe something that if this year, if years prior, I should say, you haven't had a chance to bring a focus to it, now is a good year to make sure to give it its proper place in the calendar.

If you can't come in, send me a DM and just tell me what it is you're interested in, what you've been reading, and what you'd like to read.

If you need a really good book for Advent, by the way,

my go-to book every single Advent is the same.

And believe me, I live in a bookstore, so I know there's other things available.

But this book is by Carol Halslander.

The Read of God.

It is the best book by far to start Advent with.

Yeah, I've read that book.

And so those are my fiction books.

And then I've got a devotional that is a Christmas Advent devotional.

Yeah, Starry Night.

And I it's like you see Jesus from Genesis through Revelation.