Friday Five... tis the season!

KJZ at the RevGalBlogPals wrote this week's Friday Five asking for a list of things that mark the season and one that does NOTHING for you!  So here goes!

1. Advent socks.  For nearly twenty years, my mother-in-law has been sending her kids and grandkids "Advent Socks."  Usually the females get something with a Christmas motif, but every so often there will be a pair that is blue and seem truly like they were made for Advent.  I am hoping mine came today in the mail!
2. Some kind of baking.   When I was growing up, my mother did gobs and gobs of holiday baking.  Cookies, Swedish coffee bread and I suppose lefse even technically qualifies.  I have never quite lived up to the standard she set, at least not since becoming a mother myself.   It's not a lack of talent but a lack of time and drive that get me.   This year I am feeling kind of guilty since my mother is here for a week and says she's going to make Christmas cookies.  Do I still have to bake one thing?  Or can I just offer up what Mom made?
3. A tree in the window.  I don't like yard decorations all that much, but I do love having a lit Christmas tree in the front window of the house.  We have a new kitten though and I am wondering how we are going to work this all out.  Will people notice if there are only ornaments on the top half of the tree?  Would it be wrong to build a substantial fence around the tree?   Hmmmm......
4. Forgetting to buy candles.  Every year I mean to have the Advent wreath ready and every year it sneaks up on me.  Does my daughter know that there are four weeks of Advent and not three?
5. Wrapping presents in the middle of the night.  When I was a parish pastor, there were always presents that didn't get wrapped until the wee small hours of Christmas Eve/Morning.  You know the time.  It's when the sun has come up in Rome and the Pope is celebrating Christmas mass and you can watch it on WGN or CNN.  Last year I was ready before midnight.  I stayed up late anyhow. 

There is a clear and present theme of procrastination to three out of five of my markers of the season.  And I guess that is one of the things that I don't really like about Advent.  There is so much to do and never as much time as I would like.   I don't mean to procrastinate or eliminate tasks from the "to do" list.  It's just that I find that it is such a very long list.  When I am old and perhaps not so busy, I would like to have a leisurely Advent.  I would do the things that I did when I was an unmarried country pastor with a very small parish.  Make my own cards, make my own wrapping paper, sew, craft, bake...    but for now I am going to enjoy the cookies my mother makes, get some classy looking wrapping paper that doesn't wrinkle when you use it and try to feel guilt-free when we send out email greetings instead of snail mail Christmas cards.