Advent 2009

WARNING! EXTREMELY long post ahead!

I kinda went overboard with the number of pictures in this post. I just didn't want to leave any of them out!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

This fall, I really began to think about family traditions and the Advent season and how I wanted to make the holidays a truly special time for my children. I wanted to really build up to Christmas and the celebration of God coming to earth and dwelling among us. And I wanted it to be meaningful.

So, as part of their Christmas present, I found this great Advent calendar on-line (for really cheap...about $17.00) that was cloth and had pockets big enough for me to put little notes about our activity for the day.


One of the first things we did was set up the nativity scene. My kids played with this daily and would act out the story while we read it aloud. VERY cute!


Brad's mom sent Sammy a nativity book that had a bunch of great activities with stickers, mazes, etc. Sammy loved doing these fun activities.


I also found some GREAT Advent ideas on some super websites. This was a Christmas wreath that Sammy made.


This same site also had a lot of great activities to print out. I printed out one coloring sheet a day with a Bible verse and a picture that went along with the story of Christmas. Here Sammy is coloring, cutting and gluing shapes on her tree.


Brainerd does a couple of really fun family days throughout the year. One of them is called Holi-daze. We took a horse drawn carriage ride through downtown to the old Franklin Junior High.


Once we got there, there were several rooms in "Santa's workshop" where the kids could play in balls, listen to a Christmas story, watch a Christmas video, color Christmas sheets, or make jewelry. Caleb just wanted to play in the balls and run around the building, so I stayed with Sammy and helped her make a bracelet.


While I did do some activities with both kids, most of them I did with Sammy while Caleb was sleeping.

I've learned that Caleb is just not ready for Elmer's glue and scissors quite yet!

But there were a few that we did together. The kids used glue sticks to attach cotton balls to a lamb sheet. We briefly discussed how Jesus was the perfect lamb and what He eventually did for us when he died on the cross.


Caleb is so cute!


On another day, Sammy painted some Christmas trees and stars.


Ever since Sammy and her cousin Kaitlyn were 2, I've been doing a gingerbread house every year with Sammy and Caleb. The last 2 years, they have decorated one with their Wiese cousins.

Caleb did a really good job, and I only had to remind him a few hundred times NOT to eat the candy!


Sammy loves this time with her cousins!


Even though I LOVED all that we did and LOVED coming up with our daily activities, near the end I realized that many of the days I was so consumed with preparing them for Christmas and doing all these great things, that I often forgot to enjoy them fully.

Some days I wished we just would have sat on the couch and watched the lights on the Christmas tree sparkle. Or taken more time to drink hot chocolate and talk together about our day. Or even not have done so many "activities", but simply spend time reading and re-reading the amazing story of Christ's birth.

Sometimes, I go a little over the top. I know, it's hard to believe!

But despite the craziness, I pray that both Sammy and Caleb came to understand more fully what Christ's birth meant. Everything about it pointed to His perfect fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament prophesies, and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

The Christmas story is not complete if we don't include what happened on Easter.

But now, looking at my twinkling Christmas tree...yes, it is January 6 and we still have our tree up...I am grateful for the memories we made and thankful that despite my "over the top" ways, we have begun a tradition that my children will remember and might even incorporate into their adult lives some day.