Children are not a burden to escape or endure; they are a blessing that drives us to Christ because we are incapable of parenting well without Him. - Kim Brenneman

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

all about advent

So since my bloggy friends are posting about advent and how they like to celebrate it, i thought i would share how we celebrate advent around here. A few years ago my blog friends where talking about how they celebrated advent. Growing up i remember going to an advent celebration at my church, but nothing more then that. I always longed to figure out a way for my children to really anticipate the arrival of Jesus' birthday and the full weight of what that meant to humanity. In the beginning of our Christmas celebrations i started a tradition of reading what is now my favorite Christmas book on Christmas eve. (my birthday, Jesus birthday)After we read the story we have birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. But i wanted more. So last year after looking around at different traditions we decided on the Jesse tree. There are a few different story lines you can go by, and basically whatever line you go through it all ends on Christ's birth. I like to go with the story of creation, key events and people leading up to Christ and then the whole story with the shepherds and angels and wise men. So each day starting December 1st we read a bible story related to the days topic (like dec. 1st is creation) and then after the story the boys have a special ornament they get to hang on the tree. And Christmas day we get to the birth of Christ. This especially helps my oldest son as he tends to just focus on toys at Christmas time. Anyway.. so that's what we do! :)
Feel free to share your thoughts or your traditions...

2 comments:

Kmarie said...

This sounds great. Hey I left a comment on my blog. I think you read mine wrong. But to make sure that does not happen again I re- worded two sentences and emphasized the words "or" :)
I totally hear you on that.
Thanks for the offer on that book. I would LOVE to read it:) Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. ANything you miss from Canada? I love sending small parcels! Anything your boys would like?

Marissa said...

I think the Jesse Tree sounds like a really neat idea. We have talked about doing it but really we love doing our candles etc. I think that both might be a little much at this point in our lives:)