¶ Advent Traditions and Christmas Fun
Hey , gbc , I'm Everett and I'm Jake , and this is the GBC Empower podcast and I'm back right where I belong as the hostess .
I mean , not everybody would agree with that , but I mean you . You do fine as a host .
You're okay , thank you , thank you .
Thank you . Well , adequate would be a good word . I like that adequate again .
Yeah , so this is . This podcast episode will come out December 3rd and as this will come out after a very , very big Sunday , which is Mission Sunday , and why it hasn't happened yet , we're going to go ahead and speak into existence that it went great , it was a fantastic time it went wonderfully and it went exactly the way we planned it .
Yeah , just because we're so organized , yes , so much . No , we're really excited about it and we do hope , as you're listening to this , that Mission Sunday was absolutely perfect and awesome and you got to meet many , many awesome people that do ministries that we here at Georgetown love , love , love to support .
But December 3rd is notoriously known , or the first Sunday of December is mainly known , for Advent . So , jake , what is Advent ?
The word Advent comes from the Latin word , which means coming , and the first four Sundays of December are historically known as the season of Advent , where the church would begin to preach through different words that represent Jesus and all that he came to do as the Savior unto the world .
And , you know , not all churches participate in Advent and , in all honesty , I didn't for many years , until I was , you know , probably about 10 years ago , and I was able to discover just how important Advent is in preparation for Christmas and it's a , it's something that our church uses and we like candles .
Every Sunday We'll have a family come up and light a candle . So for December , the 3rd Maverick , which one is that candle ?
That's candle would be the candle of hope , hope , hope . Or is it also called the Bethlehem candle ? Am I mixing it ?
up . There's different , there's different names . That are associated and then , as Baptist , we probably get it wrong .
Yeah , we probably do . But yes , it is . It is the candle of hope and it comes from Isaiah 9 , 2 through 6 , which I want to read that to you guys right now . The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light . Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness , on them has a light shown . You have multiplied the nation . You have increased its joy .
They rejoice before you and with joy at the harvest as they are glad with . They divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder , the rod of his oppressor . You have broken , on this day of median , for every boot of the trampling war and battle to mold and every garment rolled in blood will be burnt as fuel for the fire .
For to us a child is born , to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor , mighty God , everlasting father , prince of peace . And that comes from Isaiah 9 , 2 through 6 . And that was written about 700 years before the birth of Christ .
And you read just some really heavy language . In the same passage where you're reading about a child being born , you're also reading about the trampling boot of battle and bloodied garments of war . It's my favorite part of Christmas . I mean , some of us know what that feels like , especially if you have any small children .
But it's just one of those verses that shows you that , while the nativity story is just beautiful and amazing , it came at a time that was very challenging for the Jewish people and you know the Bible has difficult passages in that .
But in the midst of the difficult passages it says these people that were walking in darkness saw a great light and it represents the hope of Christmas .
Yeah , no , it's .
It's a fantastic testament of , yeah , like the time they've gone through and that they were going to go through , you know , the Roman Empire being ruled over them I mean like the paying taxes and it's corrupt and they're being called dogs and you know , just just this horrible , horrible time where they're not really in leadership and we kind of get why the
Pharisees thought they were going to get a ruler , because they were like they were just so beaten and wore down and and the Prince of Peace arrives on the scene and it's , it's . It's a good reminder to keep focused because , like one of my favorite fun facts is Isaiah was written 700 years and we have like archaeological proof of that .
And Yet to 700 years , God knew and he had a plan , and that's why we can have hope absolutely , and you know he will be named wonderful counselor , mighty God , eternal father , prince of peace .
Jesus is not just a baby that was born in a manger , but he's the king of kings and the Lord of lords , and when you think of the best leader you've ever heard of , jesus fits that mold . When you think of the person that loved people the most . Jesus fits that mold in and it's just an amazing fact .
But the the point of these verses was to point people to what is coming . So you know , the early church Celebrated the fact that the first advent had come , that Jesus was coming to be born on this earth . But we , in these last days , we are Anticipating the second advent , when Jesus will come back for his people .
So makes a lot of sense why we would celebrate this . And you know , christmas is an incredible time for people of all faiths , of all beliefs , and we , as Christians , are so blessed because we know the purpose for it all and why we're worshiping , who are worshiping .
But is it okay if we have a little bit of fun on the podcast and talk about just stuff that's going on in our families and Things like that associated with this ? What do you think ?
Yeah , no , absolutely so . This . These next couple podcasts for the month of December . We want to talk about Advent , especially because it's a special time and it's and it's a great family time . I love last year how we had different families come up and like the candles , you know all that stuff .
But we also want to talk about just like like like this week what are some of your favorite like family traditions that y'all do for Christmas ? I mean , you are , you're now a father of five . What traditions do y'all do , or what do you look forward to do ?
Well , one tradition that I do not look forward to is the fact that my children wake up at five in the morning on Christmas Day . But I have a wife that's so excited for what the kids are gonna open that morning that she gets up with them and I just one of the biggest traditions is me just trying to be awake .
But you know , I think back to my childhood and I think back to now as a dad . Some of those memories start coming together and , um , you know my one of my favorite traditions during the Christmas season and I've told several people this is the little things you know obviously I love Christmas Day .
I love going to Christmas Eve worship at our church , but I just like you know and we'll talk about movies here in a few weeks but I love the movies . I love getting my kids in the car and going to look at Christmas lights , yeah , and just playing , playing music over the radio .
And I also just love the excitement in my kids eyes when I know that they're gonna . They know they're getting a break from school and they just they get excited . I love seeing my kids happy and having fun .
I love , because I don't have any kids that to my dogs it is a it's just another day , yeah . But my wife goes all out for dogs . So , like last year , she brought them sweaters and they have their own stocking and all this stuff . So to them it's just another day .
They wake up like usual , but then all of a sudden , like five minutes go by and they're in like PJs , they're eating a bone and they got all these presents and they don't know why and it's fantastic .
And I love it . If you're a listener and you're judging , just know I might be joining you a little bit , but that's okay , hey , don't judge my wife .
You can judge me all you want . No , mallory , mallory you're great .
You keep get putting your dogs in stockings . It's great .
But I also do love so like we're . We're a new family and I love hearing . I love hearing the traditions that people do like .
Brett Told me that throughout the month of December , mary and Joseph , from their nativity set , move because they're traveling Towards the nativity so she doesn't keep them in the nativity till Christmas Day , and so her kids wake up and they try to find where Mary and Joseph went and all that stuff , and that is something we are Definitely gonna do as a family .
I love it .
Sometimes I hear people that do these things and I go . They're just awesome . Yeah , I don't think of cool stuff like that .
No , I'm still in their idea . You know what my tradition is we watch a Christmas story on repeat Because you know back in the day on tbs it would just play 24 hours a day . So we do that same thing on streaming service . It just keeps playing over and over again . What ?
about those traditions . That meant a lot to one person in your family , but everybody else was like uh , you know , I grew up and my grandmother would give us chocolate covered Cordial cherries every single year for Christmas every family , I feel like and and I'm just gonna say they're so gross they're the nastiest thing in the world . But my granny did not care .
She wanted us to have them and she would . She would wrap them up and we always knew what they were .
And I remember that first year without my granny I was more emotional over the fact that there weren't gonna be cordial , cherries under the tree , and that's what's so funny about tradition , Even if it's a tradition that people don't necessarily get excited about the fact that people take time to love us .
Well , we'll remember it and we'll be talking about it later on in a podcast , you know for all of us that start podcasts .
Yeah , yeah , which is everybody now , by the way .
So what are some Georgetown traditions that are really special ?
Well , I mean , like , honestly , the first thing that comes to mind is Nativity Live , and I know we're not doing it this year , but like there will be plenty of work that is involved in that , but it is a tradition to . I mean , we're just focused kind of towards that story and that story just means a lot to us , which it means a lot to everybody .
I'm not saying that but like it almost has its own special meaning , because not only do we see the birth of Jesus , we see like sorry , courtney , we see Courtney as the angel , you know , singing her song . You know we see Bruce as the Bruce and Lori as the end keepers and all the youth that have played Mary and Joseph , you know , and all that stuff .
And then all you know freezing , you know having hot coffee in my hands just because I need something warm , and all the bad weather . I mean it's just it's a fantastic time and it is a tradition . I think about Jason .
Deets , who's normally so nice and kind to me , but when he's a Roman soldier he's terrifying and he made me cry .
No , nativity Live is a great one and you know , we made the decision as a church to do that every other year because we want to put our best foot forward every other year and make this a very , very special thing , because we know it means so much to so many and it means so much to our church and we're really looking forward to that next year .
One tradition that seemed you know I'm still kind of new here , but last year the Christmas Eve service that we had , that we'll have this year .
We'll have a candlelight service at five o'clock on Christmas Eve where you know we're all on the floor , we put our chairs kind of in a circle and we just sing Christmas carols and we light those candles and just looking at everybody coming in with their family . I love whenever you know church is a family experience .
I agree .
And granted , you know we come to learn from the Lord and that is clearly why we gather to worship .
But when you see people on Christmas Eve , it's still a magical time for people and you get to see the smiles on people's faces and you get to see people that maybe you know we'll see students that graduated last year that'll be back home with their family and it's just like a big family reunion .
You know , churches have traditions , family have traditions , but you know I like the idea of old traditions but I also love to see new traditions together
¶ Christmas Traditions and Fellowship
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I love seeing . So you know , me and Mal recently married Like we're starting new traditions just as a family . One we started last year ended up being one of our favorites and it was the one that we were almost most nervous about . So last year we had Christmas on , or we had church on Christmas . Yes , it was fantastic , I loved it .
I've never hear me out I've never been a church on Christmas day and I got to and it was awesome , it was fantastic . But then we do our Christmas stuff . We were the family that travels a bunch . You know we go see grandparents in the whole nine yards so we go see grandparents .
But then we ended the day with Mal's parents my in-laws and her sister was there and we just sat around .
We opened some presents but then we just sat around , talked , had coffee and just like hung out and almost like unwind , unwound , I guess you would say just the whole Christmas experience and just got to fellowship just as a family , just got to be a family together and it was a new tradition and we're gonna continue doing that through , even when we have kids .
We're gonna end the day just at their house and just talk , hang out and just be a family .
And I think you're hitting it , maverick . We get to be together with people that we love , people that we care about , and holidays are a wonderful thing . They can be really hard for people , and this time of year always reminds me to have my eye open .
You know , there could be a person down the road that might just want you to go deliver them a little meal or go by at their house and , you know , go sing them a song . I mean , it's Christmas makes us do stuff we don't normally do . It's kind of like Halloween .
It's like all year I keep my kids from going to strangers homes and then this one day a year we decide to go to people's homes , but you know there's somebody in our church that you could go sing . You know , get some people together , go sing a Christmas carol too and truly start new traditions and just make it special .
And I think you know we have the ability to really be the hands and feet of Jesus in a very natural way during this time of year and as we think about that first advent candle , we are anticipating a special , special time in what Jesus came to do . So it makes complete sense why we would do that in our own lifestyles .
Yep , absolutely . Well , we're going to try to keep these just short and sweet . Talk about advent , talk about just some of our favorite parts of Christmas and hopefully , as you're listening , you're thinking about man what are some of your favorite parts of your Christmas ? What are some famous traditions that you do or ones that you want to start ?
So , anyways , we love you .
I mean Maverick . Just to interrupt you , though .
You remember ?
when I said a few , when I said a few episodes ago like we could have some background music and kind of , because this just feels festive , Like I imagine people are listening and they're like , oh my goodness , he just talked about something that made me emotional , you know , and maybe , maybe that's what happened during this . I don't know , it could have .
Okay , so I got to end it with a funny story .
Yeah .
I'm going to start it off a little bit less shorter as I keep talking . It's
¶ Empty Presents and Christmas Threats
okay . I want to start a tradition , and this is where you can judge me . I already am Good , good , so I want Mal is going to hate me for sharing this I want to have presents underneath the tree , but what me and my wife know , but the kids don't know , is that they're empty , with just logs inside .
And whenever they're horrible , I'm going to say I'm going to throw one of your presents in the fire , yes , and then when there are the horrible , I'm going to throw one of their presents in the fire and they're going to think that they lost a present . But then they will act so great , or ?
be traumatized . That's a great idea and I think that's awesome , but the problem is you're going to have to remember which present is which , because you don't want to accidentally throw , you know money down the drain . Maverick Jr's you know box , you know his , his favorite present in the in the . You know the fire and things like that .
Anyways , you can judge me for that , that's okay .
We're going to be talking about Christmas music and movies this month and we'll probably have knockdown drag arguments over things like that .
So definitely the movies , one Definitely All right . Anyways , we love you guys . Take care and hope you have a merry leading up to Christmas Advent season . Guys , love you guys . Bye .