Because my roomie is so on the yuletide ball, I found a Christmas calendar filled with milk chocolates on my bed a FEW WEEKS AGO. I gazed at my new (free!) advent calendar, and it made me happy seeing a jolly bearded fellow with children prancing merrily about amidst the snowflakes. It's a little misleading, however, because the "milk chocolate" that's so deliciously promised on the packaging is, in fact, the worst tasting concoction known to man. Ahhh, yesss, I can see the head nods. We are in agreement, methinks.
In any case, I was away this weekend, and so when I returned home I grudgingly grabbed my calendar, took a deep breath, and made the plunge. December 1: chocolate choo-choo train. Though promising in its formation and chocolatey sheen, once in my mouth its true flavours became apparent, and I chewed and I choked on the "chocolate" choo-choo train. Aaaand then I still had two more to go. Brilliant. It struck me that I'm a big girl now, and not only do I not have to eat lima beans if I don't want to, I also don't have to eat the devil's chocolate, either. I've decided that in lieu of eating all 24 nuggets of fun, I am going to hide them around my house. I have since put December 2 in a plant (it's dying anyway), and December 3 behind a kitchen gadget.
I suppose at its genesis the chocolate advent calendar made a lot of sense. I used to pop out of bed in the morning to accost my calendar with a heart of excitement and anticipation. Chocolate has that effect on me, on so many of us. Somehow, though, the chocolate has become cheap, commercialized, disappointing.
Today at church we had the traditional advent wreath with the traditional person coming up, reading a little diddly, and then lighting the first candle. I don't even think I really paid attention. Sometimes I feel a little sad about the way we address advent. Advent is supposed to be significant. Advent is all about expectation, about fulfillment of the promises God made through time. We are not only to remember Christ's birth, life, and resurrection, but we are also to wait in expectation for Christ's return. We often forget to look beyond the manger this time of year -- at least I do.
I find myself opening the doors of my advent calendar, knowing full well what kind of chocolate awaits me, and it lessens my excitement, my anticipation. Maybe it's my own fault. I need to rely on something other than cardboard calendars or fancy wreaths in order to look forward to Christ's return with a little more furvor. In order to salivate once again.
3 comments:
Crap! I wrote you a profound comments, didn't have a stupid password or login ID or whatever....thought to myself just close out the window and call and say you tried...and then thought NOPE! This is important to Cheryl. Speak Cheryl's love language. So I now have all my ducks in a row for this thing to work and I returned to my message and lo and behold, it had vanished! Crap! And so I perservered once again, because that's what I do, and here goes - Ash and I both read all your blogs but it may never happen again, so we wanted it down for the record. I'll support this blogging thing (obviously I was one of the "procrastinator" alert voices orignially) but only b/c it seems to be inextrinsically linked to the history of your current love life and I, of course, support that wholeheartedly. So good luck old friend.
oh dear. Charis really went to great lengths to leave that comment. I think i'd give up after 2... i hope she isn't too bummed when she finds the "Anonymous" button.
Um, 'bout that post. I think it works this way for a lot of things. We create a tradition or ritual to help us remember something important that's happened, but if we're not careful the ritual somehow overtakes the thing it's supposed to remind us of. I'm not sure what that says about the way people work, but maybe it suggests that we will always need new songs, new words, new thoughts etc., because the old ones stop jolting us like they once did. we get used to things.
I must rescue you from the tedium (grossness?) of cardboardish, waxy chocolate eating. Green & Blacks Organic 70% Dark Chocolate is to die for, or their Organic Cocoa-Rich Milk Chocolate ... Organic Mint-filled Dark Chocolate... anything with the G&B name will be absolutely divine. Shopper's Drug Mart has them on sale this week for $2.99, and you get 100 bonus points per bar if you have an Optimum Card. Merry Christmas!
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