Hi there, I'm Julie Slattery, and thanks for joining me for Java with Julie. Well, to start out today, I have a small confession to make, and I think there's a good chance that you might have the same feelings I do. But promise me, you won't hit the stop button before you hear me out. My confession is this. I wouldn't mind if we skipped Christmas. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I'm just weary of the commercialism

and all that the season demands from me.

I feel like I don't have the energy, and sometimes it zaps my joy for this time of celebration.

Do you feel that way?

Well, if you do, I'm really excited for you to join me and my friend Asherita Choochoo,

who's going to share it with us how we can celebrate Advent the four weeks before Christmas.

She's going to help us unwrap one of the unique names of Jesus each week so that we can

prepare our hearts for the miraculous birth of our Savior instead of just being too

exhausted to enjoy the season.

Okay, so this is a super basic question, but I feel like we got to start here.

Okay.

This is basic because I've been raised in the church.

What is Advent?

I love that you ask that.

I mean, people talk about it. Like, when I think of Advent, I think of, like, this calendar that I got for my kids that I did chocolate every day in it. That sounds delicious. Yeah, or, like, you know. Is it good chocolate? No. It was, like, the cheap. It's always the worst chocolate. Yeah. It's very good chocolate. Yeah. I think when I think Advent, I think

count down to a holiday. Okay. Any holiday or I think always Christmas. Okay. What is it before

Easter? What's that called? Lent. Lent. The Easter bunny.

Julie, we're embarrassing ourselves. No in the beginning of the episode of us.

I mean, yeah, of course I've heard Advent.

I've seen the candles.

I've been in churches where they light a candle each week.

But in terms of the spiritual significance of it, I don't, I never have attended a church

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