Advent

I was pretty excited for Christmas this year! Now that Ethan and Katelyn are a bit older, I was eager to start our own family traditions in preparation for Christmas. I looked into different advent ideas, and after much thought (I wanted to do them all, but didn't want it to be overwhelming for the kids or me), I settled on these two ideas...

I got this idea from a friend... we wrapped 25 Christmas/Winter books and each night we unwrap one book and read it together before bedtime.

We are also doing an advent paper chain. Each chain has a Bible verse related to the Christmas story or the meaning of Christmas on it. At dinnertime we cut one chain and read the verse together. On the first night we cut the first chain and Ethan said, "There's that many more days until Christmas?" For a 3-year old time is very abstract, and I think this helps him visualize how much longer until Christmas. It also helps us focus on the whole reason for the season.

This year Katie helped me put the chain together. She thought it was really fun to run around with it once we were done.

 I had also really wanted to do a fun Christmas activity each day, whether it be an art activity, game, or outing, but I thought it was going to be too many things to do. So, instead, I just try to throw in a fun craft or activity when we have some down time.

 Making tissue stars.

Concentrating hard on her marble painting candy cane.

I'm enjoying getting ready for Christmas as a family, hopefully the kids are too!