The Season of Advent

I love the season of advent. Last year my children enjoyed working on a Jesse Tree my good friend Rowena had shared. This year Rowena has just announced an advent ebook available! Rowena is one of the most creative people I have ever met, and I can not wait to enjoy her book over the next four weeks.

Here are some other favorite ways to count down to Christmas:

• The Advent Wreath. Three purple (traditionally catholic) or blue (traditionally protestant) candles and a single rose candle with an evergreen wreath around them. Light a purple for the first week of advent and add a candle for each week. The rose candle is lit on the third week. 

• Paper Chains. My children love making them and ripping off a link for each day. We made ours last night. I love how they festively drape around their rooms at the beginning only to disappear as their excitement grows. 

• The Jesse Tree. Twenty-five bible verses that tell the story of the bible through the resurrection. Each verse is accompanied by a simple symbolic craft to be hung on a tree branch. There are many variations on this. 

A few of my favorite things

Over the years my kids and others have come up with some great terms. Enjoy!

"Christmas crumbs".... broken glass tree ornaments.  As in, "Mom, the cat ran up the tree and made Christmas crumbs!"

"Ex-penseful" .... the feeling of wanting to open the gift. A cross between exciting and suspenseful. As in "Just looking at those gifts makes me feel ex-penseful!"

Advent... "the longest days of the year even if people say they are the longest nights."

"Play-tivity"... A kids nativity set. "This is my play-tivity. The other one is the no-tivity."

Present for Christmas

I almost missed this day. I was tired and wanted alone time so I tried to convince my family that they should go get the tree and I would help them trim it when they got home. At the last minute, my husband gently convinced me that experiencing the holidays is better than planning them. I went and had a great time. The trip was a silly, magical, cocoa and candy cane filled morning. It would have been a tragedy for me to have opted out of those memories!

A wise friend once told me that someday my home will have everything at a ninety degree angle again, but it will be quiet, and my husband and I will be alone. So, I am trying to gift myself with the experiences of Christmas. I want to be present for the moments; every loud, messy and chaotic one of them!