Tomorrow is the beginning of our countdown to Christmas. In addition to the Lego Advent Calendar given to the boys by my sister-in-law, we will use the Advent calendar from last year. (One my mother made for my sister and I.) Like last year, the boys will have tiny treasures, ornaments to place on the felt Christmas tree, and words of encouragement in each little pocket.
This year we are adding daily activities that will encourage us to have a spirit of Reverence, Love, and Joy. I look forward to seeing their reaction as they find out what exciting activity awaits them each day! I'm thinking on some days, there will be squeals of joy and jumping up and down involved. I got the idea from Joy at We're an Art Family where she keeps a beautiful, inspiring blog.
Some of the activities are specific to our location, but many can be done in families throughout the world. Over the next few weeks, I will post links to the events and tutorials sharing how to do the crafts in the list.
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| Our countdown to Christmas activities. |
We will also have an Advent wreath. It is rather untraditional, with elements of nature that we enjoy. We plan on using it to teach our boys that the wreath is a symbol of God's everlasting love and preparing our hearts for Christmas. In the first week, we will light one candle in the evening at the dinner table and talk about how that candle represents Hope. Over the next 3 weeks we will light the second candle (Preparation), third candle (Joy), and the fourth candle (Love). On Christmas Eve, I will bring out a special candle, the unity candle from our wedding 12 years ago, and we will talk about the pure gift of the Christ child - the Light of the World.
Tomorrow will be a wonderful day!
A day of new traditions.
I love your advent wreath, very beautiful! Your list of holiday activities sounds like a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn! I love your advent activities list. Thanks for the link-up. :) Your advent wreath is quite lovely also. It looks like you're close to the Philadelphia area (?) My brother lives in that area so we're up there quite often. Have a lovely weekend!
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful! We also have an "untraditional" wreath each year. Blessings and joy for your First Advent!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, simple wreath. Ours has beeswax candles, too, it looks so very different. Love the diversity in traditions.
ReplyDeleteAs always you use your uniqueness in a lovely way. Thanks for sharing. mom
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