holiday cheer

Hoping your holiday has been colorful and fun as well!
I'll see you in the new year...

unto us...

"It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts."  -Dorothy Day, "Room for Christ"

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ~Isaiah 9:6

Rejoice! it is Christmas Day!

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

Christmas Eve

The stars are brightly shining...it is Christmas Eve!
Advent (Day 28) 

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

Advent Day 27

Advent (Day 27)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

taste and see...

...that the Lord is good! Ps 34:8

Advent (Day 26)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...please?

It's beginning to look a lot like we will be having a green Christmas in Kansas this year. Being Shawn's first visit to my parent's home in the winter time (the kids and I spent two Christmases here while he was in Iraq), I was really hoping for snow. The sledding hills around here are amazing and there is just nothing like sitting by the fireplace and that wall of windows as snowfall softly blankets the wooded landscape outside. I won't complain though. While snow would be great, it's enough that we are here. All of us. There will be no tears on the phone Christmas morning, no waiting for emails saying he's back safe in his camp, that he received his care package, no I wish daddy could see this moments. No, none of that.  

We're all here sharing the same Christmas memories, and that's enough for me.

be sure to also check out today's post for Advent (Day 25)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

love

Advent (Day 24)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

dazzling

read a final poem for Advent (Day 23)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

Advent Sunday

It is the fourth Sunday in Advent ~ Advent (Day 22)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

O come, O come, Emmanuel

read the final verses here today ~ Advent (Day 21)

Imagine living every day with the earnest desire to see Jesus. Really, truly believing that He lives-

how different would our lives be? His return, in cloud, in majesty, and in awe is the event for which we live in wait. Or do we?

(you might enjoy watching this great performance of the song to hear all the lyrics)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

hopes and wishes

Despite the extra items to be checked off the to-do list, the extra parties to attend, and the extra cupcakes to bake, this is the time of year when I always seem to find extra time to read. Maybe it's my antidote to the busyness of the season, or maybe I'm just not getting enough sleep, but I've been making my way steadily through the book piles that have collected by my chair, and by my bed, and on the floor, and on my dresser...

One of my favorites has been Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, a compilation of essays by various authors such as C.S. Lewis, Henri Nouwen, and Madeleine L'Engle, just to name a few. Christie has posted a passage today that I love. I never thought much about the difference between wishing and hoping before, but oh what a beautiful difference it is...read about it here, Advent (Day 20).

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

quiet waiting

Advent (Day 19)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

this unfolding story

I remember the day I took this picture. I stood on our second story deck in the cold air and watched that patch of bright blue sky open up over bare winter trees. We only had one short year in Quantico but it was enough time to watch those trees change from one brilliant display to another with each of the four seasons. I don't think I will ever cease to be amazed by the perfect beauty of seasons or by a God loving and creative enough to set them in motion. The same God that numbered stars and formed mountains, laid out my days in a perfect cycle of season. Yet just as I am somehow surprised year after year by autumn colors and spring blossoms, I am continually surprised by His goodness, His timing, His plan. So often I allow myself to believe that the scorching summer heat has come to stay or the darkness of winter has settled permanently over the light, but that will never be true. He has written me into an incredible, unfinished story. Every day turns a new page, and when I stop to gaze into an expanse of breaking blue sky, I am reminded that my story is so much bigger than me. That it's not really about me at all.

I think Christie explains beautifully today what it really is all about.... Advent (Day 18)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

traditions

"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deut. 6:7

We cannot hand God down to our children like a family heirloom the way we might pass on a box of well-loved Christmas ornaments or a Grandfather's old watch. But through our traditions, both the everyday and the special-day, we can introduce them to the One who made them and loves them and wants to call them His own.

This year in our house we began a new tradition called the Jesse Tree. (You can download the readings and printable ornaments from Ann Voskamp's website, her free gift! And she talks about the Tree in this beautiful post from yesterday.)

"New tradition" may sound like an oxymoron, but we are a young family- traditions must start somewhere, yes? What traditions mark this time of the year in your family?

Christie began a new tradition with her daughter Lily this week. Read about it here...Advent (Day 17)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

a reason for winter

Advent (Day 16)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

now and forever

Advent (Day 15)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

winter wishing

Around this time last year we were enjoying the snowfall-
sledding in it, watching it.
Now we can only remember it, wish for it-
wait for it.

Advent (Day 14)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

waiting

Advent (Day 13)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

this visited planet

Advent (Day 12)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

how do you see it?

Christmas sparkling in silent night black and white...
or laughing in jingle bells color?

Advent (Day 11)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

song of the stars

I've raved before about how much we love The Jesus Story Book Bible, so I was really excited to discover a new storybook by Sally Lloyd-Jones on the shelves. A perfect Christmas gift! So yes, I'm totally giving away Auntie Kelli's gift plan for her nieces and nephews right now, but I just couldn't help but share. Today a whole box of them landed on my doorstep and oh my, Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story is beautiful. Beautiful. 

"The animals stood around his bead.

And the whole earth and all the stars and sky held its breath...

"The One who made us has come to live with us!"

And a young mother with no place to rest, nowhere to stay

kept is as a song inside her heart..."Our Rescuer!"

(Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones)

The words of this little story book were especially captivating after reading Christie's thoughtful words for Advent today, and I hope she doesn't mind my quoting her here-

"One day, he arrives. The silence erupts. The angels sing.

On this day, many can see what had always been there unnoticed and unheard. Songs of joy and prayers of thanksgiving are lifted to the heavens over one tiny head.

But Simeon and Anna are not surprised. They have long been listening to the sound of blood pumping and breath rising. They know that God's silence is anything but empty."

Read more here...

Advent (Day 10)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

second monday (and a challenge)

One thing I have enjoyed so much about doing this little Advent project with my sister, has been the excuse to spend some time looking back through old photos with new eyes. A fun exercise for my brain and soul has been to try illustrating specific ideas with photos. In some cases, a picture has come to mind and I've set out to capture it new, but in others, I've found meaning and stories in snapshots like this one, taken almost a year ago with little thought at the time beyond exposure and focus.

Photographers or not, fancy cameras or not, I bet you take more pictures than usual around the holidays don't you? Well, I'd like to encourage you to try something. I'm going to list below a few of the words and thoughts that I have carried around with my camera for the past few weeks. Read the list and ask yourself, what does that look like? Then pick up a camera and start clicking. (Don't have a camera but have a smart phone? You might find inspiration in a fun app like the Hipstamatic or Instagram -some of my favorite pictures have come from my phone.) Once you've thoroughly impressed yourself with creativity you never knew you had, and once you've begun to see Advent all around you, share it with us. Join the Flickr group and help grow that beautiful stack of images, bringing Christmas into focus for us all.

Alright, ready? Here's that list...

*darkness*waiting*stillness*silence*expecting*hope*love*watching*

*a community in celebration*when ordinary sparkles*making traditions*the greatest gift*
*bright, shiny & new*when all was broken & lost...*why angel's sing*joy*peace*

and be sure to read Christie's beautiful poetry selection for today-
 Advent (Day 9)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

such beautiful love

"When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating that amazing time
when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being limited all power,
and for the love of us came to us in the powerless body of a human baby."
~Madeleine L'Engle

Advent (Day 8)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

it's Christmas time

Advent (Day 7)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

eclipsed

It was bitter cold on the night I took these photos. Shawn roused a sleepy, bed-headed boy from his down comforter, wrapping him in that blue coat with the warm hood he loves so much. Middle of the night blackness was lit only by the moon- a bright, full, solstice moon. We waited and watched as it darkened and turned red.

In the shadow of us, it turned red.

It is Advent, a year later, and I see it now more clearly than I did as I watched that night, sleepy, huddled beneath a frosty window. I see that in that moment, in that great black sky, in that once in a lifetime event, a glorious story was being re-told.

And it's my story too... I am huddled at the foot of a cross, where the shadow of my cold, sin-laden heart darkens the pure and beaten body of the One bearing my shame. His covering blood runs red. When it is finished, the Light again breaks through. And in His new life, I have new life. 

White to black to red to white again.

A once in a lifetime-for all time event that began with the birth of a tiny baby King, like a silent moon rising in the black night sky.

Advent (Day 6)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

december's watch

Advent (Day 5)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

light for the world

Advent (Day 4) 

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

lights and little hands

Advent (Day 3)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

mona lavender

mona lavender ~ still glowing in the cold moonlight

Advent (Day 2)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

advent begins

It is the first Sunday of Advent. What does that mean? What does that look like? Why? These are the questions I ask myself over and over. These are the questions I pray. These are the questions that silence me and cause me to wait, and watch, and listen... for I know the Answer is coming. Today we light the candle of Hope. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. John 1:1, 4-5
Advent (Day 1)

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{Please join me each day until Christmas at There is a River with my sister, Christie Purifoy, as she shares beautiful thoughts, poetry, and prayers for Advent against a backdrop of the images you will see here. You are also invited to contribute your own photos to the Advent Flickr group. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join both of us there to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}

advent: two sister's thoughts

{Kelli's Thoughts}
Advent. What does it mean? I began asking that question after my sister shared the seed of an idea with me several weeks ago. So I started to read, and read, and read. Beautiful books and essays, poems selected by Christie, scripture that is unchanging yet new every day. It was this newness, this fresh-eyes look into something that was, for me, only foggy memories of my five year old self at the kitchen table wishing it was my turn to blow out the purple candles, that stirred my heart.
And I have been astounded.
As the message of advent became clearer in my mind, the pictures of advent began forming themselves all around me. Photographers seek light, and light is no passive thing waiting to be found. Light is life. Light shines into darkness. Light is coming, to you and to me, always coming. It is we who are watching and waiting for light, and that is the heart of Advent.
"We shall be celebrating no beautiful myth, no lovely piece of traditional folklore, but a solemn fact. God has been here once historically, but, as millions will testify, he will come again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any human heart ready to receive him." (J.B. Phillips, "The Dangers of Advent", Watch for the Light.)
It is my hope and prayer that something new will stir in your heart this year. That some part of this gift will take root and grow and astound you too.
Come! It is Advent! Wait with us...

 
{Christie's Thoughts}
What does Advent look like? It's a strange question for me to be asking. I am not a visual artist; words are my medium. Yet, when I try to define Advent it is usually images, rather than words, that come to mind. Candlelight. Evergreens. A full moon on a very dark night.
I think that I turn to images rather than words because Advent, itself, is a question rather than an answer. I'm afraid that my words will pin it down in a way that defies its very nature. The writer Shauna Niequist puts it well: "Advent is the question, the pleading, and Christmas is the answer to that question, the response to the howl."
There are a few words that seem right, to me; words like waiting and longing. Anticipation and expectation. However, I think that the right words for Advent will remain few. Images, on the other hand... can you imagine a beautiful stack of them, growing and growing? I can. Picture after picture reminding us that the Light will return. Our Light will return.
Will you add your picture? Will you look, with us, for the return of Light?
At the heart of Advent is a belief that light will return, no matter how long or dark the night. What does this belief look like to you?

{Read more of Christie's thoughts and her beautiful introduction to this Advent season on her website, and be sure to "like" her on facebook or sign up for daily emails so you can keep up with the posts in the coming month. If you are a photographer, please join me in the Flickr group here to contribute your own images of Advent. If you are not a photographer, we hope you will still join us to watch as the season quietly unfolds in pictures.}