Today marks the second day of Advent, but we are pretending that it is the first because we were driving back from Paris on Day 1.I am doing my annual best to hold the "celebrate Christmas before Christmas" societal pressures at bay. Today Vivian and I went to a German florist to buy an Advent wreath. The experience was entertaining.
So the wreath was not what I had expected - it was just plain evergreens. This meant that I would have to do all the ribbons, ornamentation and candles! by myself. The kids and I trudged into the Post Exchange and bought what we needed. It required a lot of surrender from Mommy to allow Vivian to pick out the ribbon and ornaments. Gaudy to me is "fancy" to her. Then we went back to the German florist to buy the plain wreath.
As I was paying, I innocently asked if there was "some of that green foam stuff inside" so that I could get the candles to stick. She looked at me with disgust, flipped the wreath over with her smoky, wrinkled, practiced, hands and showed me straw tightly woven together with wire. All she said was, "we make dem dis way in Germany."
Ja. Got it. So we made our Advent wreath, wrote our Advent prayers and we are off and running.
4 comments:
oh my goodness--that's so funny! Happy to read your updates & glad you all are enjoying some fun adventures!
I love this story and I am sure that this will be your most meaningful Advent wreath yet, for that very lack of the green foam stuff and all of the extra care that you will invest in its place. (Great description of the florist's hands. I can see them all the way from here.)
KC- Seriously- will you PLEASE consider writing a book? You are such a gifted and eloquent writer. You are amazing! Your entries are so vivid and poignant, they practially pop off the page and pull you right into your life. Which is great because it's very hard to miss you guys and wonder what's going on...your entries help to keep the unity flowing. Thank God for KC!!!
PS. "Gaudy to me = fancy to Viv"...stay tuned to your mailbox as auntie Hannah always seems to come through in this dept....
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