HOPE

The beginning of Advent.

When I was a little girl my Grandmama had the biggest nativity set I have ever seeing, it was really amazing.. she had a whole village set under her stairs, there were ponds made with blue foil and cellophane paper filled with ducks and fish, it had  bridges with  people crossing wagons pulled by horses, little children running all over the place, shepherds in different sizes and colors and of course lambs, lots of lambs and each of the grandchildren (12 in total)  was represented by one lamb, me being the littlest of my family I was the littlest of the lambs, and every day depending on how well we had behaved  we would move the lambs closer to the manger... I can still feel the excitement when walking towards Grandmama's house every night, (fear on those days that I wasn't that well behaved) but when that door was open ... the smell of all the lighted candles, the hot chocolate, the sweet bread, my Grandmama's open arms and the biggest smile that was waiting for us would make every December so very special.

At school we had an advent wreath, and every morning we would light it and prey, it was really beautiful. 

This year for my kids I was finally able to buy this advent spiral with  Mary and donkey, eventually and hopefully our collection will grow every year,  the girls are so excited.. we will read a chapter every night until Christmas, they love to move Mary on her donkey around the spiral and they love to listen to the story, I was afraid the chapters would be too long but they are just enough for the girls to want a little bit more so they are learning to be patient for they have to wait just one chapter a day.

And we bought also baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and three lambs, little by little I hope to be able to resemble my Grandmama's nativity set,  probably not in size but in memories, for now I'm making sure all the candles in the house are lighted and the hot chocolate is always ready on the stove.