How is your Advent going?  Not gonna lie, it has been an emotionally draining Advent, thus far.  Honestly, I tried to write a post earlier in the week, and I was just too drained to get a coherent thought out of my head — that and the fact that my house is falling apart — which means I can just about manage to get a 7 Quick Takes post out for the week. Here goes: 1.We buried a beloved brother-in-law this week.  He was definitely the peacemaker of the family, the one that never got too involved with family arguments and chose to build bridges instead.  He never met a stranger —…