Dec. 4, 2008 - Advent

How are you doing preparing and anticipating Christmas? 

One of the traditions my family has liked to do over the years is Advent.  You can find many sites with lots of information and even various books and resources of which I have a few.  We've been doing it for many years however so we tend to do our own thing, sometimes traditional, sometimes different.

If you've never done advent before check out this blog I did last year complete with a picture of my kids (a few years younger) by our advent candle.

This year we have chosen to let the kids each do a week.  They will chose what scripture we read and what song we sing and anything else they want to say or do.  I also found this devotional that Homeward bound is sending out this December which looks like it's focused on Angels that we may fill in with here and there.  Another interesting angle I was thinking about was focusing on the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled (which would be a good reminder since we covered this in History a while ago!)  Here's a chart from our history work which could be a good starting point.

 Now, in case you think you're too late (the first Sunday of Advent was last Sunday) don't worry.  We haven't actually lit our first candle yet.  Remember, the point is to focus on Christ and his coming, not to get  hung up on doing it on Sunday.  We're planning on lighting our first candle tonight.  My youngest daughter is doing this candle.  After that we'll probably try to hit Sunday's but if one candle gets lit on Monday or Tuesday, no big deal.

So what are you doing to focus on Christ and prepare for CHRISTmas?

Gina

Dec. 8, 2008 - Advent