When I was a little girl I LIVED for our Advent calendar!  It was cardboard and Mama hung it on our wall each year.  With 25 numbered little “door” flaps, they opened to reveal sweet drawings inside leading up to Christmas Day.  I could not wait to see what the next one held.  Life was so full of wonder and surprise.  Of course I have observed Advent in church all these years but in growing up somehow I lost the mystery of it all.  I still enjoyed the Advent wreaths with their candles but it just wasn’t the same.  And then several years ago I discovered Jacquie Lawson on the internet.  She created the most enchanting animated Advent calendars.  (Actually I believe it all started with an online Christmas card.)  They are true works of beauty and magic — the music, the animals, the art, the technology; it was all there!  With that she enabled an adult to regain the joy and wonder of childhood.  What an incredible, indescribable feat.  I became so engrossed in her little online created world, watching the people go by walking dogs or seeing them sitting on benches visiting.  Just when I did not think it could become any more fantastic I discovered the scenes went from day to night!  Then there was an information center filled with facts about the history of flowers, classical art, and music with fun puzzles to play.  Best of all she created a virtual tree decorating and the snow flake maker!  Soon even my husband got drawn in.  Our little girl is four now and this is the first year she may remember Christmas.  This Advent calendar has made her eyes sparkle in a way that I know no tangible gift can.  We give to the St. Joseph’s Lakota Indian School and they mailed an advent calendar with stickers as a thank you.  From old versions of traditions to new, Christians around the world anticipate and celebrate the coming of the birth of Christ.  The Twelve Days of Christmas signify the time it took after the Savior’s birth for the Wise Men to follow the Star and make the journey to worship Him, culminating in Epiphany.  Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias said:

“Wonder knows that while you cannot look at the light, you cannot look at anything else without it.  It is not exhausted by childhood, but finds its key there.  It is a journey like a walk through the woods over the usual obstacles and around the common distractions while the voice of direction leads, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.'”