Over the years, my family has been blessed to spend time each night during the weeks before Christmas in a time of Advent mediation and family Bible study. 

A sweet friend of mine, Michaél, introduced me to Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide, and its accompanying books in the Advent series, Tabitha's Travels, and Bartholomew's Passage.  These three books were out of print for the last 3-4 years, making them very popular and expensive to purchase on eBay and other online sources for new and used books.  Some were being sold for as much as $150, if you can imagine that! 

Fortunately, the author-turned-publisher has been recently able to begin having some of these books published again.  We have told so many families about these books!  Our children have been captivated by the nightly readings that take our family through Advent to Christmas as we follow the characters' adventures. 

These family Christmas stories, combined with a scriptural devotional, include a portion of the fictional story that always ends in a cliffhanger, reflections for family devotions, and a basic Advent calendar.  Ytreeide's books are truly captivating - even to the adults in the family - and we have looked forward to reading them year by year as Advent approaches.  We will be reading Jotham's Journey beginning this coming Sunday, the original book in the series of three books.  It will be our second time reading this one together as a family.  I can't speak highly enough of these three books that accompany a wonderful family Bible time together.  They are designed for families whose children are ages 5 and up, although some littles might still enjoy hearing the stories each night.  They are definitely captivating - and something that especially boys will really enjoy!  (Even though we only have daughters, I know it can sometimes be difficult to find Bible devotionals and stories with biblical values for boys.) 

You can learn more about Mr. Ytreeide and Jotham's Journey at http://www.jothamsjourney.com/

He will soon have an Easter/Resurrection book out on the market as well, that follows a similar method of a family devotional time. 

Here's another advent suggestion:

For the past four Advents, Miiko Gibson has been blessed by Eleanor Zweigle's Advent Study using the Inductive Method. This year, for Advent, she is able to host Eleanor's study on her website again. It is still FREE. You have her permission and blessing to download and share it with your friends. Here is the website for the PDF or 1997 Word downloads:

http://www.miikogibson.com/advent_study.htm

And now that Thanksgiving is officially over in our home, although thanksgiving to the Lord remains in our hearts year-round, I can heartfully wish you a "Merry Christmas!"

In Christ,

Julieanne

© Copyright 2008 by Julieanne Miller. All Rights Reserved.You are welcome to link to this article, but not to repost its contents without permission from the author.