This year I decided I was finally going to do an Advent devotional for the month of December. It's something I seem to forget about until mid-month and then the perfectionist in me doesn't want to do something half-way so I forego the whole experience. But this year, I'm on it! I'm enjoying Ann Voskamp's "The Greatest Gift" devotional. Advent celebrates the anticipated arrival of Jesus. And even though the story line of Christmas morning is familiar, I'm seeing and experiencing Advent differently this year. Really, the point of Advent is to focus on the anticipated birth of Christ. Anticipation is a funny thing. It's a wild card in our hand of emotions -- sometimes anticipation functions like excitement, sometimes like a pre-celebration, but sometimes it's the vehicle for anxiety. And if you think about it, it's all made up -- anticipation is whatever we imagine it to be. Experience informs our imagination, but we choose which th