it's a conspiracy...an advent conspiracy

so we attend this church and we have been hearing a lot about this because windsor is all about celebrating christmas differently. and i love it! this was our first year participating in the advent conspiracy and it was amazing. we had such a different holiday experience. the stress of the holidays was minimal. we had an amazing christmas day with the boys...just being TOGETHER and playing TOGETHER with the gifts they received. our attitude has changed. and the change came softly, seeping gently into our lives.

the boys, caught up in the AC spirit, emptied their banks, without prompting from us, to donate to this organization and give clean water. and jim and i had so much fun coming up with ideas for gifts for our sons that would cause us to have more PRESENCE in their lives not just give a PRESENT. we have some new games to play together as a family, and each parent gets an individual date with ben and sam.

so about this change that's seeping in...

we were in the car and talking about our neighbor, jim (whose wife recently died), and i was asking the boys if they would like to help me make a meal to take over to him. they were excited about the idea and started offering suggestions of meals. then sam says "yeah! and maybe we can go eat at jim's house with him so he's not so lonely." and i began crying so hard i couldn't answer him. here i was trying to take the easy way out - just make a meal and drop it off - forgetting that PRESENCE means so much more than PRESENT. and sam called me out on that one. and i'm so thankful he did...