Thankful Thursday

So it begins.

Today is the first day of the Nativity Fast for Orthodox Christians on the Julian Calendar (Orthodox on the Gregorian calendar have been fasting for 2 weeks already and will celebrate Christ's birth on December 25 with the rest of the West), and we commence watchful waiting for 40 days.  As I wrote a week ago, this year I don't have the time or the energy for a lot of things during this season, so I'm scaling back a little.  

Our new Cradle-to-Cross candle wreath arrived just in time and I set it up this morning so we can light the first candle at supper time tonight.    Our Jesse box also arrived yesterday (I got it on crazy sale thanks to a nice code from Ana's blog) and I am planning to put that together this afternoon or tomorrow sometime.  

I dug out an Orthodox Advent calendar that I bought years ago but we never seem to remember to use because I decorate the house later in the season.  My husband took the older three kids to church for a Thanksgiving Molieben this morning at our parish in New Jersey, so I had a few hours to putter around in the basement and do some sorting.  While Ponchik napped for an hour this morning, I shop vac'd the concrete floor (our 19th century floor joists tend to shed little bits of debris over time) and moved some things around to access the under stair area where my Christmas decorations are stored.  I sorted through the boxes and bins and pulled out the things I plan to put up on the eve of St. Nicholas Day on the 18th and then put everything back as it was.  Most of my decorations consist of ornaments and garland to hang them on, and since I don't plan to put up either this year, it was easy to pull out the other things I wanted.  I found my harvest wreath, tucked away in a forgotten box under the stairs and hung it up too.  It felt good to have the time to do these things.

We had our official Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday so that we could have the turkey and potatoes with all the fixings.  Tonight will be a vegan Thanksgiving meal.  Nice, but not quite the same.  I'm thankful for many things today, too many to list, so I won't start.  

Blessings for the Fast.