Simplicity of the Season

This morning I chanced upon a fantastic quote:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo da Vinci

This was a weekend for Christmas Parties. Not only did we enjoy visiting a few friends homes on Saturday, we hosted a neighborhood Open House at our home on Sunday night. And, there's a reason for me telling you about this in relation to the da Vinci quote:

This is the third year we've hosted a neighborhood Christmas party. We've done it up in a big way others years - preparing alot of fancy food, spending a great deal of time on the details. Not that there's anything wrong with that in general. But, for us, we were doing those prepartions during a time that we're already strapped for money and time. So, when we talked about hosting a party again this year for the 'hood, we decided to do it differently. I called it "our holiday experiment." First, we sent the invitation on-line (without paper and so much less time needed!) using www.evite.com. We decided not to plan for the party until it was closer so we'd know what kind of time we had to offer to the preparation. And, we saved the day prior to the party for all of our prep - cooking, cleaning, shopping. Plus, we made it fun! We included the family and asked a few close neighbors to bring something to share. We kept the menu simple - looking at some old December holiday magazines and a few favorite cookbooks. Blair (let me just say here that it also helps to do this kind of entertaining as a team!) and I were prepared and excited when our guests arrived. Ready to party, with a great desire to hospitably welcome and enjoy our guests!

The experiment was a great success, and I want to report to you that our casual, simpler party had a very nice atmosphere of sophistication and joy.

As we move into this third week of Advent our hearts become more expectant. What are the things that you most desire to experience in the upcoming weeks? Are there ways that you can ensure those desires are fulfilled?

I wish you peace during this week, peace that takes you beyond the glitz and noise, peace that lets you sit in the waiting, hopefully-aware of God's desire to bring goodness to this world.