Advent

I've joined Hilary in her December Challenge and already I'm feeling more connected, less stressed, and am even seeing my kids get into the spirit. With my steaming cup of coffee I sat down by the tree yesterday morning to read some scripture and browse through a family devotion specific to the Advent season.


Our family will be focusing on preparing for the birth of our Savior with some meaningful Advent activities that may turn into traditions if the kids go for them. Because really, if they aren't excited about it or dread it, I'll put the idea away for another year or toss it out entirely. Our kids are removed from the commercialism that overwhelms this time of year. They don't watch TV and we rarely go shopping. We make 75% of our gifts and the kids are 99% involved in the process. I feel like we're in a good place, but I'm always checking myself to make sure that everything is kept in perspective.

There can be so much pressure associated with making everything perfect. The perfect gift, the perfect tree (guilty), the perfect Christmas photo (guilty)...

We want our kids to anticipate this time of year because of the love, closeness, and friendship between our family and friends as we spend time "making memories" as Brian's grandma used to say.

A memory we created yesterday was our first Advent chain. Sam did such a good job cutting out the strips of construction paper and Julia helped by stringing the pieces together.










I wrote Bible verses I found on this website for us to read every day until Christmas. The extra fake tree we put up in the living room was the perfect place to hang it. It's otherwise undecorated because the kids haven't made any ornaments for it yet.

Another tradition I started this year came from a post Merranda
did last year...or maybe it was a comment she left on my blog???
Anyway, I super sized it a bit since we have an abundance of Christmas books (that's what happens when your mom saves all your childhood books from Ben Franklin, Shopko, and Copps - Thanks Mom!)

Either for the 12 days of Christmas or for the entire month of December, I wrapped up Christmas books that the kids take turns opening each night.



We curl up in the green chair next to the tree and read, sings songs, take turns saying what we are thankful for and what we need to ask Jesus for forgiveness for, and get as many snuggles in as we can. This is also the time that we look up the Bible verse on the link from the advent chain we remove each day.














Here's an excerpt from the book I'm reading called "Christ in Christmas - A family advent celebration"

The great value of traditions comes as they give a family a sense of identity, a belongingness. All of us desperately need to feel that we're more than a cluster of people living together in a house; we're a family that is conscious of its personality, character, and heritage, and that our special relationships of love and companionship make us a unit with uniqueness and personality.

By far the most important traditions you can give to your children is to instill deeply ingrained spiritual values in each child. And what better place to start than with the Christmas season.

I would love to hear what traditions your family has to celebrate the coming of our King. If you're up for it, write a post about your favorite tradition and then leave a comment under this post. I know I appreciated the ideas JMom shared last year at Lots of Scotts. Her family does the Jesse Tree devotional -also a very great idea.