Perhaps at some point you might consider having a real-life discussion on making the paradigm shift from the US/Protestant cultural approach to the advent season, which is a time of happiness, generosity/charity, parties, carols, and decorations, to the more penitential and somber Orthodox approach...around which evolved the Medieval and Eastern European Christian cultures. As an inquirer, I'm honestly finding this difference, and I'm certainly not an exuberant, extroverted, or gregarious person, to be very disconcerting. I know Orthodox are suspicious of the passions getting out of control, but do you think they ever just experience joy in God's blessings?
Perhaps at some point you might consider having a real-life discussion on making the paradigm shift from the US/Protestant cultural approach to the advent season, which is a time of happiness, generosity/charity, parties, carols, and decorations, to the more penitential and somber Orthodox approach...around which evolved the Medieval and Eastern European Christian cultures. As an inquirer, I'm honestly finding this difference, and I'm certainly not an exuberant, extroverted, or gregarious person, to be very disconcerting. I know Orthodox are suspicious of the passions getting out of control, but do you think they ever just experience joy in God's blessings?