Advent 2012

Advent is upon us and with that is my annual research into the holiday we commonly call Christmas. Every year I try to learn a little more about the holiday and "redeem" traditions of Christmas past.


Although I can't go into the specifics of my Christmas research right now, I'm sure you'll get to hear about it eventually on this blog. Today, I am sharing our Advent plans.


Advent is a time for us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christmas, the day we celebrate as Jesus' birthday. For us we have decided to also try and make it a time for us to draw closer in activity and time to our kids and our family. Each day there is an activity planned as well as scripture to read. Time together as a family and time to discuss and spend with/for the Lord.


I also decided to make a simple Advent Calender for us to follow . .


First our lists . .


1. Put up the tree and decorate the indoors
   Isaiah 40:1-5
2. Decorate the front door and balcony
   Isaiah 52:7-10
3. Watch St. Nicolas as a family (on the computer)
   Isaiah 40:9-11
4. Make Paper Snowflakes
   Genesis 3:8-15
5. Watch A Little Drummer Boy as a family
   Genesis 15:1-6
6. Make Christmas Ginger Cookies for the Neighbors
   Deuteronomy 18:15-19
7. Make Neighbor Cookie Boxes
   Psalm 89:1-4
8. Make Hot Cocoa
   Isaiah 11:1-10
9. Hand Out Neighbor Cookies
   Zech 6:12-13
10. Make Cinnamon Christmas Star Ornaments
   Micah 5:2-4
11. Make a Christmas Candy (probably fudge)
   Mal 3:1-6
12. Sing and Dance to Christmas Music
   John 1:1-8
13. Watch The Toy That Saved Christmas as a family
   John 1:9-18
14. Take family Christmas Photo
   Mark 1:1-3
15. Decorate Christmas Gifts (for everyone else)
   Isaiah 7:10-14
16. Make Construction Paper Nativity
   Luke 1:1-15
17. Make and Decorate Christmas Cookies
   Isaiah 9:2-7
18. Make an Apple Cinnamon Struesel Dessert
   Matt 1:18-25
19. Make Pom-Pom Snowmen
   Matt 2:1-2
20. Make a Gingerbread Nativity
   Luke 1:15-25
21. Look at Christmas Lights around town
   Luke 1:25-35
22. Play a Christmas Game (toddler Friendly)
   Luke 1:36-50
23. Make Cinnamon Rolls
   Luke 1:51-66
24. Hot Cocoa and Christmas Cookies
   Luke 1:67-80
25. Christmas Breakfast
   Luke 2


So now that we've gone over the Advent daily activities, we can go on to how I made our advent calender. . .


I started by cutting and folding a piece of cardboard into a "Chinese take out" shaped box based on one I got with some dishtowels.'

I then folded up the edges using eyelets to hold the sides together,  I also ran ribbon with bells through the eyelets.

 I then made sleeves and numbers for our paper advent plans to reside in . . .

 I then wrote our plans out rolled them up into the sleeves and stuck them in the bucket. . .

 Cute little Advent calender for our family this year.

Oh and I'm sorry this post is slightly tardy. I was going to post it earlier, but then the baby got sick and clingy . . sad news!