Our reason for starting these now with such an early family is not so that our kids understand what we are doing each day. I am ok with the fact that they don't comprehend most of it. They will understand one day, and we will already have the practice of doing it each year.
Advent wreath:
In years past, we lit this every night. We would add a new candle each Sunday, and light it during our Advent reading. This year, we decided to just light it on Sundays. Each Sunday, we would talk about what that weeks candle symbolized.
Advent Devotional:
This year we used Ann Voskamp's devotional. I read the entire thing each morning, but Will just read the corresponding verse to us at dinner. There were ornaments to go with them, but we didn't do those.
Jesse Tree:
This year we made a Jesus Storybook Bible Jesse tree. Each ornament corresponded with a story we read each morning of Advent. Then, we would color the picture and hang it on the tree. At least that was the plan, but I didn't get much cooperation this year.
Advent Calendar:
I made a list of fun stuff for us to do all month. I wrote them out on a large chalkboard in the playroom. We have a wooden Advent calendar with doors that I will eventually use, but for now, Hudson will just destroy it.
Activities included salt dough ornaments, hot chocolate, indoor snow, Christmas lights, St. Nicholas Day, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread houses, waffle cone trees, a trip to the Galleria, Christmas stories at the library, etc..
My favorite activity from this was our St. Nicholas Day treats. We spent the day learning about the true St. Nicholas and then we made treats for our friends. These treats symbolized what St. Nicholas left for children in poverty years ago. We left oranges, gold chocolate coins, nuts, Christmas tree ornament and candy canes. We also left a poem explaining each treat as well as a print out of the story of St. Nicholas.
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| Salt dough ornaments |
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| Gingerbread men with Maw Maw. |
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| Sugar cookies. Notice he has a gun holstered in his apron. |
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| Waffle cone trees at Dawson's house. |
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| Lunch at the Galleria. |
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| Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer at the library. |
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| Gingerbread house. |
Advent book:
We use a children's book titled, "The ADVENTure of Christmas." Most of our crafts and stories come from this book. I have learned so much about our traditions and where they originated from reading this.
Giving:
We are taking the giving slowly. We desire that our family give more than we receive. It is counter cultural for sure, and if I am honest, we totally get more than we give.
We decided to support a child from Compassion International. We will be giving towards this all year, but we started it during the Advent season in the spirit of giving.
Hudson did an Operation Christmas child box. Next year, Clara will do one too.
We chose something from Samaritan's Purse to give towards. This year we helped supported a cleft palate surgery in honor of Will's brother.
There are several more ideas that we have done in the past, but for one reason or another, we did not do it this year. Last year, Will served dinner in a prison, and we supplied a goat to a family in Africa. I would like to do something like that again next year.
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| Letter from Paulo in Brazil. |
Gifts:
We do the four gift rule: Something you want, need, wear, and read. I also started the tradition of each child giving the other child something preferably homemade.
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| Hudson making crayon molds for Clara. |
Christmas Eve:
We are busy during Christmas. So, we try to make Christmas Eve special for just us. We exchange gifts on Christmas morning and also do a Happy Birthday Jesus Party! We make cupcakes and ice cream. This year, we did not make ice cream because we are learning Hudsons's system can not handle much sugar.
