since today is Dec 1, it was the beginning of some of our traditions.
one is this basket of 24 wrapped "gifts". we open 1 each day. they are mostly Christmas books and CD's that we own. but i found that i'd put this pile of Christmas books out and we'd never read them and then i'd just pack them back up after Christmas. this way, the day that we open a particular book, we read it. at least it gets read once. there are also some other gifts...a box of hot chocolate, a box of candy canes, a little box of lights for the day we'll go to this street and walk along it (every house is lit up like crazy), sprinkles for the day we'll make Christmas cookies, the 3 boxes to the left are their gingerbread houses that we'll do one day. it's fun.
this is Bailey opening the first one...a picture of them with Santa last year - since we went to see Santa today.
my mom always gives the kids this advent calendar and they take turns opening one door each day and there is chocolate inside. again, bailey is doing it. i made the decision that we'd go youngest to oldest.
tomorrow we will start "the candle." lighting the candle for advent. we are doing something new this year - the "Jesse Tree" advent. i'll let you know how we like it.
this term..."the candle"...has such precious meaning. the Christmas that rebekah was 2 1/2 years old, we started at the beginning of Dec and did the Adornaments (another advent thing) with her. every night we'd light the candle and talk about one of the names of Christ. once Christmas was over, we put the advent candles away, but from then on, our nightly devotion with her was termed - "the candle". to this day, we still call it the candle - even though no candle is actually lit 11 months out of the year!
4 comments:
I love this tradition. You and your family are such an encouragement as to what it means to put the Lord first in your lives. The love of the Lord shines brightly through your love for husband and children. It is amazing.
Love your Brother in Christ
brandon
Hi sweet daughter, I love all your decorating and the Christmas traditions coming to life! Precious. Thanks for all your posts. We'll talk tomorrow. Love you, Mom
Love the update on the family. It is so wonderful to see your awesome traditions in pictures!! We love and miss you all. Christy
I do love hearing all your traditions - great idea with the basket of gifts. We have our advent calendar in process (the nativity scene that the boys put a picture up each day) and they love it. Love all the advent things - haven't ever seen the Adornaments that you were talking about - I LOVE that idea. Have to check it out.
Oh - and the gingerbread houses.. I see you got each kid their own. Does that mean it will be a disaster when my boys have to share one? It's the first year I ever bought a kit...maybe I've made a fatal error.
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