What needs doing before Christmas?

RevGals ask what five things need to be done between now and Christmas?
Well, it would be nice if a magic fairy would appear and clean the house. The choir party is here Sunday night and it has been raining all week. That means there are muddy paw prints everywhere even though I try to wipe all eight paws when they come in the house. And of course, my housekeeper doesn't come until Tuesday!
I need to get Christmas cards mailed to family and friends. The debate is whether to include a xerox letter or not. Probably not.
I could use a sermon for this Sunday, although I have some ideas.
There's grocery shopping to be done. The Charlotte/Memphis family will arrive Christmas Eve.
I need to make the final donations online to Second Harvesters. My family gives small gifts that are edible/drinkable or finite is some way. We sometimes give books and then pass them through the extended family. But most of our gift giving is charitable donations. Heifer and Episcopal Relief and Development have been my organizations of choice for several years; however, this year I feel a need to give locally as well.

There's really not much to be done, especially when I look at all that's been done in the last three weeks. If the cards don't go out until after Christmas, that will be fine. But all the other things definitely have to be done this weekend. Then I think I'll take Tuesday off.

"What do you long for this advent? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? What is your prayer today?
In the vein of simplicity I ask you to list five advent longings...."

I don't know whether I am having trouble limiting myself to five longings or if I can't think of even one. Most of the time, it seems to me, there is no time to long for anything except perhaps an end to the busyness that is life for lots of us. But even when I do have time, I still don't think about what I long for the most. Well, not in a serious way.

I long for the end of division within my denomination. I don't understand it and it is taking so much time away from the proclamation of the good news and the work of the kingdom. It grieves me to hear us hurling labels and turning our backs on all of God's children in favor of a group that thinks and acts in a particular way.

I long for time with my children, time I don't seem to make any more than they do now that we are all adults and have very different lives taking us in many directions.

I long for the coming of the Christ, not because I need to see it in order to have my faith validated or rewarded - I naively said once that this was the one event that would convince me of faith (ah youth!) - but because I don't think humanity is ever going to get it right. I don't think we can conceive of life without war and poverty and bigotry. Only God can straighten out this mess that we have made again - history is full of stories of our predecessors who didn't do any better.

So my prayer is one of gratitude, a cry for peace and a plea for guidance in what or how I am supposed to play a part in making peace happen.

That's all I have today. It is my day off and I really don't have anything to do other than ponder the sermon for the early service on Sunday. I've built a fire in the fireplace and I'm going to stretch out on the sofa with my dogs and an Ivan Doig novel. Then I'm going to dinner with a friend and a concert afterwards. Right now, this day is probably what I long for most.

Peace to you all.