Rejoice! Today is Gaudete Sunday, which means today we light the pink candle on our Advent wreath. Gaudete means rejoice, and as we draw closer to Christmas this day is a reminder to us to rejoice because the wait is almost over and soon we will celebrate the birth of Christ! Traditionally Advent is a season of fasting and penance like Lent, but that tradition is all but lost with the commercialization of the holiday. The original 12 days of Christmas BEGAN on Christmas day and ended on Epiphany (when the wise men come) on January 6th, but these days we use them as a countdown BEFORE Christmas.In an effort to still capture the special season of Advent where we prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord the Cotter family waits until this special Gaudete Sunday to light up the Christmas tree and then we keep it unlit until Christmas Eve.
I tried to get a good picture with the kids, but to no avail. Notice the awkward smile on Pal's face. This is because each time I would get the camera ready he would run at me before I could get the flash to go off.
It looked like this. He thought this was very funny, it was... kind of. You can almost hear Bean yelling "Pal, stop!"
Each year during Advent our parish has a Christkindl Market on the weekend of Gaudete Sunday with food, crafts and activities. We headed there after Mass for lunch and a little Christmas shopping. The kids enjoyed a healthy meal of donuts and popcorn.
We also caught the Christmas pageant, the star of the show for me was the star. He was awesome. After seeing the pageant Bean played "Christmas" at home, but for some reason she wanted to be Joseph and Pal was Mary.
We then decorated the tree...
and Pal put on the star. Bean got to plug in the lights. By the end of the day Bean declared "I love Advent"... so do I.