Last week, I made some generic cottages out of foam core to be used as part of a program where people make “gingerbread houses.” Actually the houses are made out of graham crackers attached to a building core such as the foam core cottages, a pint cream container, or other object. They are then decorated with frosting and candy to resemble tiny houses. Mostly the project involves families working together, kids eating a bit of candy, and a lot of intergenerational fun.

Somehow, after making the cottages for the project, I made a small mode of the house where we live out of scraps of foam. It isn’t to scale. I “eyeballed” the structure rather than measured. The second story is a bit taller than the one in reality. One of the roof lines is crooked because I didn’t get it quite straight. But it is a reasonable model that might be recognized by those familiar with the houses in our subdivision.

After I made the model, I realized that this house still seems new to me. We have lived here for just a little over one year, which is not much compared with the 25 years that we lived in our Rapid City home. On the other hand, a full year in the same house is longer than we lived in any of our college or graduate school apartments. And in a few days we will have lived in this house longer than we lived in the rental that we used as a temporary home while we shopped for houses after moving to Washington. So, I guess we are settling in a bit. However, after I made the model, I found myself wandering in the upstairs guest bedrooms to see their exact layout and how the closets were formed for those rooms. I didn’t go into that detail in the model I made, but I realized that I wasn’t quite sure that I could made an accurate floor plan from memory. Sure enough, I had forgotten a hallway linen closet that affects the location of the clothes closet in one of the bedrooms. It still seems new to me.

Of course, we have a great housing luxury. We have guest rooms. One doubles as a playroom for our grandchildren and has plenty of toys. The other gets used as a sewing room and a craft room part of the time, and often as a guest room, as we have been fortunate to have guests visit us in this home.

It is the third Advent since we retired and moved out here. Although there were some strange things about the timing of our retirement, and we have been very happy to have been able to return to part-time work in the last year, there have been some good things about the timing of all of the changes in our lives. Advent 2020 would have been a strange year, no matter what. Churches had to cancel and condense many programs. We probably would not have held our traditional Advent Fair that year, with people gathering in close quarters to do crafts. There just weren’t many gatherings that year. And Advent 2021 was also strained by the continuing pandemic. We made kits for families to make their gingerbread houses at home. The kits were delivered and we had a Zoom meeting for people to share their creations. It wasn’t at all like the intergenerational event where people were working together in the fellowship hall of the church.

Things are a bit more “normal” this year. We will have an in-person gathering in the fellowship hall. Folks will remove their masks to eat a snack. There will be carolers gathered around the piano singing. We are still observing a few pandemic protocols in our church and masks are being worn in the sanctuary during worship, but much has returned to a pre-pandemic state with the lifting of public sanctions and an easing of pandemic fear. Those who are experiencing infection of the virus are reporting milder cases and anti-viral medications are easing symptoms for many. The illness is still very real, but we have adjusted to its presence in many ways.

One of the blessings of having retired and having experienced the pandemic is that we have been able to have our own Advent recognitions with our grandchildren. I joked about that first Advent after we retired that Susan only scaled back. She designed stories and crafts for our grandchildren each week in much the same way that she used to when she was designing programs for the church. Our dining room table was filled with projects and our grandchildren gathered around coloring, painting, and crafting just like a mini Advent fair. Last year was a slightly scaled back version, but there were different crafts and stories for each week. This year is our third Advent with our grandchildren. For the five year old, the traditions are becoming established. Coming to our house for Advent activities is a “when we always” for her. Even the older grandchildren have added expectations for Advent based on the last couple of years of experience.

I’m not quite fully settled into the new routines and traditions. I’m still doing a bit of remembering from so many previous years. I can see the differences between the traditions at this church and those of the church we served in Rapid City.

Change is good and change is necessary. As hard as it has been for our Rapid City church to recruit new leadership, it was time for us to move on and for change to occur. And it was time for us to find a new church home and discover some new traditions. Of course, we sought out a congregation with many similarities to the one we served in South Dakota. I love the fact that a handful of members of the church gathered in the church on the first Christmas Eve of the pandemic to observe the tradition of ringing the church bell at midnight on Christmas Eve. I recognize the feeling. This year our late service will be a joint service with Garden Street Methodist Church, which has been sharing our building.

Change is good, but connection with traditions is also important. Advent is a season for connections with traditions, even if we aren’t doing things exactly the same as we always did before. A blessed Advent to you.