Advent in the U.S.

I wasn't sure what I'd think about all the glitz, kitsch, lights, consumerism and hustle-bustle of Christmas time in the states after spending three Christmases in a poor country that doesn't even celebrate Christmas. Turns out, I'm loving all the lights, the Christmas music everywhere, the red and green advertisements in store windows, the decorations everywhere, how easy it is to buy Christmas presents and find baking ingredients and all that stuff. There are some things that I knew I would enjoy - being with family and friends (duh), having ridiculously predictable electricity and water and how easy that makes baking holiday treats (not to mention cooking dinner, heating a house and bathing children), store-bought eggnog, access to any ingredient I so desire, ease of finding gifts for loved-ones (give my creativity a break!) and the feeling that the culture around me is anticipating the same thing. In the Pacific NW in particular, we may each celebrate Christmas differently and for different reasons, but there's still the feeling that most of the people around you are getting ready for Dec. 25th for some reason or another. I'm LOVING being able to go to church during advent. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally a believer in the church is people not a building, but there are people gathered at so many buildings called churches here and it's so wonderful to be able to worship together and be in an environment where there are a lot of people meditating on the coming of Jesus. I just have to put a plug in here for John Piper's poems on the Desiring God website. Really moving. Here's a link to one about the innkeeper of the "no room in the inn" inn in case you've never heard it.
 http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/poems/the-innkeeper-original-1986
The kids are loving Christmas-time here too. Everywhere we go Emmett says, "look mommy! Christmas things!" Costco is one of his favorite places right now because of all the decorations that are out. He doesn't realize that they're all for sale. He's just enjoying what he's seeing. I guess that's what I'm doing too. Sure, there's plenty of criticism for the "over-done-ness" of the holidays in the U.S. but why focus on that? We're just going to keep enjoying what we see and hear and make the most of our holiday season here.