I'm back! We had a wonderful visit, and then a lovely, busy whole week of Thanksgiving. I hope you all have been doing well, too.
It is my very favorite time of year already. Last year we shared an Advent devotional here. This year we don't have anything new like that (but of course you can go back in the archive and find last year's again). And even though Advent is already here, I still want to ask.... Do you observe Advent? How? What does it look like in your home this year? And even if you don't "do Advent," how are you preparing for the holidays?
(If you have a “Tuesday Topic” question, please email it to me at fylliska@gmail.com. Provide your blog address if you would like to be linked to, or specify if you would like to remain anonymous. Thanks!)
Hi Phyllis! I missed you while you were gone. :-) Yes, we do observe advent; we've always lit a wreath and read scripture every evening. Sometimes we sing a song, or make it special with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Last year I printed Ann Voskamp's Jesse tree ornaments, so we've used that for reading. My nativity set collection is out, and we'll put up the tree this weekend! I love this time of year too!
ReplyDeleteHappy Advent! Betsy, I also use Ann Voskamp's Jesse tree ornaments/devotional. Most of my kids are a bit too young to really get into her daily devotionals, so I adapt it a bit for them. They like the ornaments and the themes. I try to do some fun and simple crafts and we have some special times reading various Christmas stories, and we enjoy fun things like decorating, listening to Christmas music, baking Christmas cookies for friends, singing a Christmas song as our bedtime song each night, and the usual simple things like that. I've found that our life is too unpredictable to have a daily advent plan work out for us (I usually just end up feeling stressed defeated when I try to do something everyday), so I just try to keep life from being over scheduled during this season so we can focus on Jesus and make the season celebratory for our family.
ReplyDeleteThat's sounds great, Ashley. You probably do a lot more than I do! I don't use the devotional either. I cut the ornaments out, put them on a red cardboard backing and wrote the corresponding scripture with a silver metallic pen on the back of each one. All we read is the passage. Enjoy your December with your kids.
DeleteWe are going through a simplified version of "Truth in the Tinsel" this year with our son. I've been amazed at how much he understands now of the Christmas story for only being 20 months old!
ReplyDeleteWe are definitely keeping it simple though. I don't think we'd survive the already busy holidays if we were to do something special every day!
We do the Jesse tree, but it's a little different because it corrosponds with the Jesus Storybook Bible, which is FANTASTIC for little kids, and is on kindle!
ReplyDelete