On the evening of Saturday, December 6th, almost 50 children and parents came to church to celebrate together at our Advent Spiral event.  This event blends the beauty of light and darkness with quiet waiting, reflection, and wonder – a perfect opportunity to help our children and families experience Advent in a new way.  As our families gathered together in the parlor, the children began by exploring almost 20 different nativity sets – all donated by members of WCUC.  We then sat together to read a story, Night Tree by Eve Bunting, which tells the tale of a family who travels into the woods every Christmas Eve to decorate a tree with edible ornaments for the woodland animals.  We talked about how this story reminds us to look for joy and light in unexpected places this season, transitioning beautifully to our actual Advent Spiral set up in North Hall (the rain forced us indoors this year, but it was no less magical).  A pathway of evergreen trimmings spiraled around the floor, leading to three large candles set up in the center.  One by one, children and adults took a candle of their own and walked the spiral to the center, lighting their candle and placing it on the pathway on their way out.  Slowly and surely, our spiral began to simply glow with light and wonder.  Both children and adults were mesmerized.  Music, delicious refreshments, and crafting centers set out for the children to create their own edible ornaments rounded out our event.  We ended the evening together around our glowing spiral, singing Silent Night, then bundled up and headed out to the Welcome Garden to decorate one of the trees with all our edible ornaments for our own animal friends.  It truly was a night of wonder, quiet waiting, and overwhelming beauty for all.