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Monday, December 3, 2012

Advent



The Christmas season is such an exciting, joyous, 
and FUN season.
It's a time to dwell on the miracle of Christ's birth.

 This is also a hustle and bustle season. 
I usually set too many goals for myself and have a list WAY too long for one person to accomplish.  
I tell myself I'm doing all this fun 'stuff' for my girls 
but in reality I can easily neglect them in the middle of all the 
'holly jolly' preparing.

 But Advent is a special time to prepare for Christ's birth.
With all the fun things overflowing my calendar, 
I need to ask- how many of them are really focusing on the true meaning of Christmas?
So this year, we're slowing down a bit. 
We're embracing Advent 
and trying to spend quality time with the girls. 

So here are a few fun things we do to embrace this season together.

These little stockings are filled with notes with fun activities.
I'm most excited about the 'Random Acts of Kindness'.
More on that later!

On December 1st it said to make a countdown chain.


Yesterday we decorated a gingerbread house.

(I highly recommend the one from Costco- it's already put together!  Booyah!)



My folks mail the girls an Advent calendar every year.



We build the nativity scene using this fun set from Family Life



The girls LOVE their new Little People Nativity set.

( I just have to share that I scored the Little People set BRAND NEW for 6 bucks at Goodwill.
 To say I was excited is an understatement!)


I wrapped all the Christmas books again.  
They love waking up to unwrapping a book. 



And every night we light a candle on our Advent wreath 
and read scripture.
This is a tradition I grew up doing, so I love making it a part of my little family's traditions.


This is such a special season.
My hope for my family is that we embrace it together and not miss the meaningful moments by being too busy with activities.


So, what fun things does your family do 
to prepare for Christmas?



4 comments:

  1. Two peas in a pod. Yep! I could have written this post! Our advent wreath has red candles right now. Every year we forget to get the purple and rose candles in time for the 1st day of advent and spend days trying to track down candles! ha! I must ask what scriptures do y'all read when you light the candles? I've been wanting to do more than just light a candle but haven't been able to figure out what. We do, do a Jesse Tree though and have readings for that. I'll be posting sometime this week more about advent. :)

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  2. i'm doing an advent post this week too! i love your little stockings...adorbs. can't wait to hear more about that. have a great day!!!

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  3. booyah!
    ***high fives***
    LOVING this season...i needed an attitude adjustment this past weekend, thankfully the Lord is full of grace and mercy! :)
    love all of your fun plans.
    xoxo

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  4. Love this time of year and creating magic for our little ones! Your advent stocking garland is so cute! I would love to wrap books but I dont think we have 24 christmas ones. :)
    So jealous of your GW score! That is awesome!

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