Advent

My family isn't big on tradition, or holidays in general, but we do a nice job at Christmas and one thing that I always enjoyed was the lighting of Advent candles. The lighting of the candles (and the snuffing out) was divided between my brother and I, one of us lighting candles on nights 1 and 4, the other on nights 2 and 3. Therby letting each of light (and snuff out) 5 candles. The pink candle though is extra special, because well it's pink. When picking out the candle nights I was usually able to convince my brother that the pink candle is on night four so he should take nights one and four, while I being more attune to remembering details knew that the pink candle was for night 3 thus ensuring that I would get to light the extra special candle. Now I'm old enough to have my own candles I light them all myself. Advent is one of the few religous ideas my mom knew very little about so to me it's always been about adding some light to a dark winter Sunday, and having a calendar filled with chocolate.