I just realized it's almost Christmas and I forgot to post what we've been doing for Advent this year! :) As I waited until the last minute, the pictures aren't great (taken in early-morning light), but you'll at least get the idea:
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| Advent bags.
Like last year, I hung 25 little mesh bags from the top of our 4 poster bed. Each bag has a number for the day of December it is, and inside are two pieces of candy (Starbursts--pink for Layla, blue for Finn) and a puffy sticker. The bags for Christmas Eve day and Christmas Day are red, and instead of regular candy they have chocolate coins in them. I'm pretty sure they are NOT dairy-free, so we'll have to figure out a trade for those, but they thought they were so cool in the dollar section at Target that I had to buy a few. Likely a big mistake. ;) We do a very minor math lesson in trying to find the right numbers for each day, and then take it down. The kids throw their arms in the air and say "Christmas is coming!!!" before eating their candy. Then Layla is in charge of putting the sicker on the picture.
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 Sticker stable scene: |
| This manger stable scene Jonas drew on a long piece of white paper. It's taped to the back of our door, so when we're done with our morning candy (healthy mom prize for me!), Layla hops off the bed and places the sticker for the day anywhere she wants. You can see how her brain works: linear. ;) Then I ask her, "Layla, who are all of the animals and the stars waiting for??" and she'll reply with "Jesus to come!!" |
We then run from my room into Layla's room, and she does her two "things" there:
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| Eric Carl Advent calendar:
This pop-up calendar is sitting on her built-in shelving unit, by her closet. She lifts the flaps, tears out the ornament or gift for that day, and places it appropriately on the tree or in one of the gifts below the three. Then we run over to the back of HER door.
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| Regular old calendar:
We've just been crossing off the days until Christmas, doing counting practice, etc. She's so funny--she likes to make her "X" from number to number, not from the corner of each box to the corner of each box. Drives me nuts, but so far I have managed to keep myself in check and not micro-manage her every developing movement. ;)
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Then we all run to Finn's room!
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| Finn's Advent calendar:
Waiting, and doing only ONE thing each day, has been torture for Finn this year. Good torture. ;) He likes to place his ornament on the tree. This one is felt-ish with velcro ornaments.
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| Finn's regular calendar:
Isn't this a great picture??? ;) Classic Finn "I just got up and the world is not going my way" look. This calendar is on the back of his closet door. I usually help him count and cross off a box, and then Layla ALSO crosses off the box...just to make sure it's done right. As you can see, I'm a thrifty Mama who reuses the September calendar as it has the same day/number positions as December this year... ;) However, when Layla saw me cross of the September on Finn's calendar she HAD to cross off the December on HER calendar.
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| The prettiest Advent calendar:
This is the Advent calendar my Mom made for me last year. I just love it. :) It sits on the mantle over our fireplaces and is center stage every year.
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| Layla helps me place each tag on the board and we talk about what the elves are doing every day. The tags come from the Jan Brett book "The Wild Christmas Reindeer," and Layla also loves to read that book together. http://www.amazon.com/The-Wild-Christmas-Reindeer-Brett/dp/0698116526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387812018&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Christmas+Reindeer |
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| Our Advent wreath.
Every night at dinner we light 1, 2, 3, or 4 candles, depending on what week it is of Advent. These stay lit all of dinner, and the kids love to help blow them out at the end of the meal.
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| Bible reading:
I have to say, I love this Bible for children. It makes me cry almost every time I read it. Normally we'd try to read a story from here every night after we eat, but during Advent it's been hit-or-miss. Mostly we just do our candles and sing. :)
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Then, after dinner, we sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel together. It's one of my most favorite Advent hymns, and I thought we'd try to learn it as a family. Layla LOVES to sing, and she has really caught on well to the song! I love hearing her belt out "REJOICE! REJOICE! Emmanuel, shall come to thee o Israel!" Cuteness. We only sing the first verse, over and over, in the hopes that it sinks in well for the kids. Next year we'll be able to add the next verse for sure, or maybe all of them. I'm not sure if that link above will work, but it's to a YouTube version of the song if you don't know it. :)
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| Our "Thank you God" candles.
We started this tradition before Advent, but we still do it every night, and will likely continue doing it every night until...well, maybe forever. :) We turn all the lights off except for the Advent wreath candles and the Christmas tree lights, and then we light these candles. Each person gets one, and we each say "Thank you God for _________." and then blow out our candles. We do at LEAST two rounds of this because it's such a hit of an activity. Layla has gotten really good at thinking of very specific, detailed things to thank God for. Finn? Notsomuch. :) He literally can NOT focus when he has a candle in front of him: ALL his brain can tell his mouth is that he needs to BLOW OUT THAT CANDLE ASAP!! I was going to get a video of it, but our flip is currently not working, so I'll see what I can do for posting it later. Jonas and I crack up almost every single time.
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Advent Reading:
This Kindle e-book was free on Amazon one day, so I've been reading these short entries for each day of Advent. It's been nice! Not to die for, but nice for sure.
I think Renee recommended this book to me, and it's been great. I also like it because it goes THROUGH the whole Christmas holiday (ending January 6th) rather than ending on Christmas day like most Advent books would. I don't want to miss out on the 12 days of Christmas!! :)
I also have a box of Christmas books for the kids. Some are religious, some are secular, but I don't care. :) I try to take some time every day and sit down with them to read from the "Christmas book box." Layla is much more into this than Finn is, for obvious age reasons I think, but he also has such a hard time sitting still for anything. We're working on it...sloooooowly. ;)
So, that's it! That's Advent in our house this year!
