Advent Ideas

Believe it or not, I did actually get some good responses and ideas after my last post...it's just that most of them came in the form of emails and conversations (not in the comments section of the blog).

I love what one of my friends does: Starting on Boxing Day her son is given a clue at breakfast each morning to find the wise men as they make their way to the nativity scene.  They are hiding somewhere in the house, and often happen to have a gold (chocolate) coin with them.  On Epiphany they arrive at the nativity scene and the family celebrates by giving their Christmas gifts to each other.

As Jon and I have discussed our ideas, here is what we've come up with so far...
I think we're going to do our stockings on St. Nicholas' Day.  Because we will often be traveling and in someone else's home for Christmas, this is one thing that we can do in our own space, with just our own little family.

I also came across the idea of giving three gifts, like the Magi did.  This year we'll do something to wear (p.j.s on Christmas Eve), something to read, and something to play with.  I think this will help us keep the gift buying/giving under control and allow us to be reminded that Christmas isn't about the material stuff we get.

We talked about also trying to give something that we've created that expresses our love for the other person...perhaps a poem or a song or a piece of art.  We haven't given this the complete thumbs up yet, but I think it would be neat for our girls over the years to experience something like this.

I made an Advent calendar (pictures below).  Clipped to each clothes pin is an activity for us to do that day.  Some are simple crafts (make a paper snowflake), some are experiences (go to Candy Cane Lane to look at the Christmas lights), some are opportunities for us to love our neighbors (pick out a gift from the World Vision Catalogue, take cookies to someone in the neighborhood), and some help us tell the Story of Christmas to the girls (set up the Nativity Scene, go outside and look at the stars and talk about the Wise Men).  I expect the activities will change as the girls get older.

We're also doing devotions together each night.  We're using the Regent College Advent Reader.  Laurel isn't quite ready to sit through a reading like that yet, so I think we might do it after the girls are in bed.  But we'll hopefully find other ways to tell the Story to her in the coming weeks.

To be honest, the real reason I wanted to write this post was to show you this: