The day started with a late night.  The presentation aspect of the worship service kept me up past 1 AM as I was taking the PowerPoint, perhaps, a little more seriously than I needed.  But it was done and I was off to bed.

Morning worship was wonderful.  I had arrived early enough to set up the Advent Wreath and get out our the animals from our new Nativity set for the children's time.  And we worshipped.  We sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."  We sang one of my recent favorites, "Toda La Tierra."  We sang The Great Thanksgiving for Holy Communion and we had "new & special" bread from The Bake Shop.

So far, so good.

After worship we had several folks stay around to work on an Advent Calendar craft.  There were families working together.  There was Christmas music.  We had a few cookies.  And, for something that we've never tried before, it seemed to be well received.  It might have taken a bit longer than expected but it was a blast.

So far, so good.

We had a couple of down hours before heading back to church for Discipleship Group.  I knew there were just going to be three of us last night, but we had a wonderful conversation about Christian community and how we long for relationships.

So far, so good.

One kid back from homework at a friend's house.  One kid back from babysitting.  The "Short Louds" (our young twins) ready for bed.  Our son off to bed.  Our older girls upstairs, reading.  My wife and I getting ready to sit together and watch the episode of "Glee" from a week and a half ago.

So far, so good.

It was then I realized we didn't do our Advent devotions.  Day 1 and we're already behind!  Things were going so well up until this point.

It was the perfect start to Advent...almost.