I’ve developed more of a love/hate relationship with it…at least just this first year…
Let’s face it, Italian Stallion told me yesterday that at this rate, it’s going to take us 2 months to get through the 25 days of Advent with all the “new” traditions I keep adding…
We’ve read the Advent book from the start, along with “gifts to God” at Christmas time…we’ve read the books, watched the DVDs, all trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and not get caught up with everything else…
On the flip side, I know that there is evidence that Jesus was into celebrations and fun and friends. So, I also don’t want to get so “opposed” to that other “man-made” side of Christmas that it becomes a “oh boy, Mommy’s taken over the bandwagon again”
Anyway, in my quest to make sure that our hearts are in the right place and our focus is first centered where it ought to be this season, I added another “tradition” to our (apparently already full) plate of activities during Advent.
Our neighbor friends let us borrow this little Advent door thing…my idea wasn’t that we’d be somber in reading each night…but I also wasn’t planning to create “fun” activities…My purpose, I suppose, was to create ways that we could just spend a few extra moments together as a family, talking, praying, laughing…(and to also do something so that each child had a “job” on that specific Advent night…therefore we have the 1)door opener of the advent book 2) door opener of the Advent house and 3)chain ripper for the countdown...because I'm all about the
Each night, there is a small piece of candy for whomever's turn it is to open the “house” door. There is also a note to be read…(this is where the love/hate thing comes in) I LOVE being creative…however, trying to come up with 25 ideas to write on these notes, has proved itself to be more difficult than I imagined. We have prayed together as a family, we’ve read a Christmas book, created our own Mad Lib for Christmas, raced daddy in a Christmas wordsearch, listened to a Christmas song before bed, went around and told about our favorite ornament…
I’ve read about other ideas, but sometimes it’s just more involved than I am wanting…I am looking for QUICK, but meaningful…FUN, but poignant…
We’ve already completed 8 days. I can’t believe we’re this close to Christmas already. It’s actually done a good job on me in that I am not feeling the “stress” of the season so much…at this point, I’m more worried about what I will write for the little note behind door number 9.
