These Early Days of Advent

 We are enjoying the Jesse tree this year and are using Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas for the scripture and illustrations.  However, we are talking through the stories and not reading the lengthy devotionals.  I posted more thoughts on this book last year here.  More photos of the tree are here.

The little clay advent wreath is one of many advent crafts that Isaac has brought home from preschool.  I am so delighted to have him at our church for preschool especially because they are teaching the children to tell time by the church year.  I'm so very grateful for the reinforcement of what we are doing at home.

The older three boys and I have been enjoying some Christmas chapter books.  We finished The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which the boys now look forward to each year.  We also read I Saw Three Ships
for the first time and that is a delightful book!  We actually read the whole book in an evening, it is so hard to say no when they ask for another chapter and I'm just as eager as they are to see what happens next.

We are now onto The Christmas Surprise and I'm hopeful we'll make it through this stack by Epiphany.  It has been working well to read after our advent devotionals while the boys color in Christmas coloring books.  Mr. 4 has trouble listening to some of the longer books if his hands aren't busy, and yet he so wants to be part of what I'm doing with the older boys, so this works well.

Note: I've never read the Swindoll book in the stack above, it was a gift.  I think Jonah might enjoy it, but I can't recommend what I haven't read.  The others in the stack I can heartily recommend as excellent read alouds.


The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Christmas Surprise

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas

The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

The Thirteen Days of Christmas (We read this over the twelve days of Christmas each year.)

I Saw Three Ships

Here is a photo I took of some of the chapter books we read last year at Christmas time.  In this group I really love The Family Under the Bridge which didn't make it into this years stack.  At least not yet...
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What are your favorite Chapter books for Christmas?  Please Share!

Our Favorite Advent Traditions

Looking for a new advent tradition?  Here are some of our favorites.

I am so excited to be living in the same home as we were last Advent.  Everything is so much more organized than in years past.  I've been thinking about advent the past couple weeks and am getting a few things ready for our preparation.  We are trying to simplify and do without all the sweets and extras before Christmas so that the twelve days are really special.  This is always a challenge and we certainly make exceptions for parties with friends and a few cultural events in the city, but our longing is for advent to be a time of preparation, fasting and waiting.  We are planning on just having lights on our tree when we put it up in a week or two and then slowly decorate it through the season.

Light in a Lantern  - This is my favorite advent tradition.  I love that This book engages our imaginations and sends us into nature to forge for items to make Mary and Joseph's journey as we travel through advent.  The stories are so whimsical and engaging I love them more each year we read them.
 




Jesse Tree - While Light in the Lantern is my favorite tradition I think the Jesse tree may be the most important.  I love that the Jesse tree reminds us that the birth of Christ was part of God's great story.  Having this as the central focus in our time of Advent is so very important.  I would love to add leaves with each of our boys symbols to represent their small part in this great story and something representing the forever kingdom to remind us that this story isn't over yet.  I've been reading about the history of Advent recently (primarily in this book) and am really wanting add more eschatological emphasis to our advent celebrations.

I was just given Ann Vorskamp's book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas and have really enjoyed the bits I've read so far.  It has a reading for each day of the Jesse tree.  I think with the littles it will be wonderful to have an illustrated book to go along with the biblical readings and it will simplify things for me.  In the past we've used this website to guide us (though we mostly read the scripture from the bible or children's bibles and didn't use the devotional part much).

You can see all of the felt leaves we use in these posts, but there are printables at this website if you want to get started without all the stitching.


Advent Chain:  I don't know if we'll make one of these this year, but Jonah really enjoyed this study of Jesus' names when his class made it last year at their Christmas party.  We may do something with it on the Feast of the Name during the twelve days of Christmas.  Because it is a free printable it is an easy advent tradition to add.  It pairs very well with Sally Lloyd Jones' book Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story because she weaves the names of Christ through the book.

It is designed to hang and have one loop removed each day till Christmas.  You can then talk about that name of Christ and read the scripture listed on the loop.

I would do this in purple if making for an advent chain.  They made it for a Christmas decoration so it was gold and silver.

Christmas Books: Getting out our collection of Christmas books has always been a big part of our Advent celebration.  We've collected lots of books, some have been gifts and many have been finds at thrift stores.  There are so many wonderful stories that I wan to share, that last year I realized at the end of the season we hadn't read a few of them (though we had read others over and over and over).  So this year I wrapped up a package of books for each day of advent.  Every day has at least one book about the nativity story and then a couple books that range from traditional Christmas stories (The Gift of the Magi, The Nutcracker, The Night before Christmas...) to more modern children's literature (Olivia Helps with Christmas, Olive, the Other Reindeer, Madeline's Christmas...)  I'm excited about this and the boys are already eagerly eyeing the two baskets of books wrapped in brown paper bags.  I also sorted our Christmas tree ornaments last year, so when we read stories about birds we can add a birds to the tree, etc.

















On the Godly Play Shelves: Our banner will turn from the green of ordinary time to the purple of advent.  Our nativity and risen Christ are out all year, but I do find that they are played with more through advent and Christmas.

Playing with the Annunciation and going to Bethlehem Story:


Memory Work:  Our Sunday School finished with Psalm 23 and began memorizing Luke 2: 8-14.  I will try to post on this soon and have a copy of the memory card to share.

Traditional Wreath and Godly Play Advent:  We'll probably light our advent wreath and use our felt Godly play cards and scripts (from this book) each Sunday.
 
Family Candle: I think we'll simply use a purple candle on our dinner table this year.  We light a candle most nights through the year at dinner to remind us that God is with us in this place and at this time.  This is such a simple way of marking the church season.
 

Feast Days in the Fast of Advent: I'm also looking forward to St. Nick Night and St. Lucia Breakfast.

More Ideas:
My favorite books to use in planning advent are Festivals Family and Food; All Year Round: Christian Calendar of  Celebrations; Celebrating the Christian Year: Building Family Traditions Around All the Major Christian Holiday; Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home; and Celebrating the Church Year with Young Children

Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home (Advent and Christmas)

"While Advent is a season of preparation, Christmas is a season of wonder.  Celebrants have been preparing a long time for this moment; Christmas is an extended time to savor the gift" (23).

A friend contacted me to ask if I would like a review copy of a book on the church year at home... I of course, contacted the Doulos Resources and said "Yes, Please!"  I always love new ideas and resources, and I was happily surprised by the brevity and organization of Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home (Advent and Christmas).

I often have people ask me where to start in celebrating the church year or ask questions like "What are the twelve days of Christmas?" and often they really want to know; they are intrigued by the idea that families can live the church year in such tangible ways.  I have lots of resources I love, but they are all so full of extra ideas and other holidays through the year, that there was no one simple place to point them. That is where this little book is brilliant.  It is not the most exhaustive list of ideas and resources, but it is simple, unintimidating and a wonderful little handbook for celebrating Advent and Christmas.  It does a brilliant job of listing the feast days and most common traditions.  I'm so glad I requested the hard copy (they have a digital copy available here) as I've referred to it many times this season as it sits on my counter.  I've even read bits out loud to my boys as I explain a feast day or tradition.  

Jessica Snell, the editor begins the book with a lovely reflection on discovering the church year as something that helps us fill our longing to know God, teach our children, and live out scripture.  It is worth getting this little book just to read her reflection.  I have so many thoughts on why living the church year is a wonderful way to live as a family, so it was lovely to see similar thoughts so well-said on paper.

After the introduction there are two sections - one on Advent and another on Christmas.  Each of these two sections has the same structure.  They begin "with an introduction which explains the meaning and history of the season".  This is followed with an explanation of the days in the given season.  Next there is a section on traditions (lots of practical ideas of things to do as a family) including ideas 'for the very young' which is lovely for those of us with wee ones. Then there are sections called "In the Kitchen","Beyond the Home" and a resource section.  The resource section lists scriptures, passages to memorize, prayers and seasonal reading.  I must say that the seasonal reading sections are a bit disappointing.  I recognize that they are trying to make the list short and only the best, but only three books are listed for children to read and three for all ages in the Christmas season, which seems a bit of a travesty as there are so many amazing books to share through the season.  The books they recommend are quite good, but there are many others equally wonderful (if not better).

This book is a wonderful resource for those who want to begin celebrating advent and the twelve days of Chistmas.  It is also a lovey book for those who already celebrate these seasons, but would like an organized handbook to refer to throughout the season.

Feast of the Holy Name

Today we celebrated the feast of the Holy Name as part of our twelve days celebration.  Traditionally the Feast of the Holy Name is most often celebrated on the first of January, but there are traditions that celebrate it on several different days in January.  We chose to celebrate on the third because we are home, but I think we'll  continue this tradition as the first, being new years day, has family traditions of its own.

The idea behind the feast is to celebrate that eight days after his birth, per Jewish custom, Jesus would have been taken to the temple to be circumcised and named.  

Here are a few ways we celebrated today...

::At breakfast we shared stolen, which is a traditional German bread made to resemble the Christ child swaddled (I bought this right before Christmas at Trader Joe's).  I shared the meaning of the feast day and we talked about Jesus being taken to the temple (which involved explaining circumcision to a curious four year old - smile.) 

 :: This was actually Jonah's Christmas craft at his school party this year.  It is a chain with twenty five different names of Jesus on it.  I believe it was intended to be copied on purple and be an advent activity, but his teacher printed it on gold and silver to make a lovey Christmas decoration.  (I just did a quick online search and you can find a free printable here!) We talked about the names some more today and Jonah has enjoyed looking up verses in his Bible over the Christmas holiday.

 :: The boys enjoyed water coloring over white letters I had drawn to discover the name of Jesus and IHS.  I sewed the J-E-S-U-S on a ribbon to make a simple banner to decorate for the day.

:: And then tonight we had a simple feast of soup and bread, followed by honey cake with lemon icing (from this cookbook - it got mixed reviews in my family - I was going for something not too sweet.)  We put a candle on it as Rowan has been asking when we will have Jesus' birthday cake (we've never done a birthday cake before, but he won't except that anyone, especially Jesus, could have a birthday without a cake!)  The cake has the letters IHS - or Iota-Eta-Sigma - on it, which is a shortened form of the Greek name Jesus, which means the Lord Saves. We talked about this and that the Hebrew of Jesus would be Joshua.  IHS is the Holy Name traditionally associated with the Feast of the Holy Name.

:: As the boys ate their cake and drank hot cider I read Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story
by Sally Lloyd Jones (author of The Jesus Storybook Bible).  When I first saw this book I loved the way it showed all of creation getting ready for the birth of the Christ Child.   When I took this book to share with Jonah's class at their Christmas party and they were making their names of Jesus chain, I realized that in the later half of the book Jones slips in quite a few names of Jesus.  Jonah's class at the party and my boys tonight loved shouting out "there's one" when I read another name of Jesus.  It is a perfect book to read with little ones on the Feast of the Holy Name.

Advent and the Light in the Lantern

Advent has begun and it is the third year we are reading through The Light in the Lantern.  It is a waldorf inspired book with an imagined story for each day of advent about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem.  I love it so much.  I particularly love that it shows all of creation waiting for the saviour to come and usher in the kingdom of God.  The first week is based on the mineral kingdom, so we've been collecting river pebbles, cracking geods and singing about ice.  There will be more rock searching this week and, as we are studying geology this month, we're planning a trip to the Natural History Museum at the end of the week.  

I don't have our Jesse tree ornaments as they are in storage, so we're just doing the Light in the Lantern this year.  If you are interested in the book, ordering directly from Wynstone press in the UK is the most cost efficient way to get a copy (it is insanely expensive on Amazon.)

Right Now

:: we're all trying to get sleep 

:: a few Christmas toys and decorations have emerged, but it will be a slow process this year.  

:: there is a lot of reading going on around here.  Christmas books have been brought out.  Jonah is enjoying Mrs. Pepperpot Stories, The Wise Enchanter (he's read this book so many times!), Carole Marsh mysteries and, as always, a lot of Magic Treehouse rereading!  I just finished Artichoke Hearts (on the Carnegie Short List), The Good Shepherd and the Child: A Joyful Journey (Lovely collection of essays on a child's spiritual development), and Moon over Manifest (Last years Newbery Medal), which is WONDERFUL!

:: we are feeling warmed and grateful for meals from friends.  So much yummy food through the past week as we adjust to life as five!  Thank you dear friends!

::  Advent has begun and we're enjoying the Jesse Tree (though we are already behind), The Light in the Lantern stories (I wrote about this last year here and hope to write a bit more later this month as I love this collection of stories!) and a bit of advent godly play.

:: and mostly, I'm just trying to soak in all the baby goodness I can.  These first days are so precious and I'm trying to keep life slow and quiet so I can enjoy the little moments.