Our society’s transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas can be quite jarring. As soon as the dishes are done from the Thanksgiving meal we are hit by the blitz of advertising reminding us that there is no better time to buy Christmas gifts. Yard reindeer go up, retail stores cycle through their Christmas playlists, and every movie and commercial on TV seems to end with smiling families in matching sweaters around a Christmas tree. But are we getting ahead of ourselves a bit? In the Christian calendar, the end of our Thanksgiving holiday also marks the start of Advent. It is not a season marked with jubilant celebration (that will come),…