This is always one of my favorite entries to write. I went back and looked for last years, but I guess having a new baby prevented me from putting my plans down. It's probably a good thing since I didn't do much last year. On Christmas Eve I "threw" the remaining ornaments on the Jesse Tree, made a pile of Advent Calendar magnets for the kids to put on the fridge and I think we rushed through our Advent story (Jotham) in the last few days. It wasn't our best organized Advent and we didn't do many of the things we normally do, but I don't think anyone really minded; we were too busy enjoying our newest edition.
This year though, I've got the Advent bug already and have been working on things for the past week. I've got our calendar almost done, the schedule for baking is completed, we've talked about things we'd like to do and now we're just waiting for that first Sunday of Advent to arrive. The anticipation is already building. So on to our plans:
Baking
This will be typical fare; not much changes from year to year. I like it that way. Baking with my Mom is one of my favorite memories. Up past bed time, watching Christmas movies and baking cookies. It didn't get much better than that. I tend to do most of the baking with the boys during the day, since we're home and we can really get into it with all the kids. We'll turn on a movie or music and have a wonderful time.
Pumpkin Bread
Cranberry Bread
Sugar Cookies
Thumbprint Cookies
Ginger Snaps
Snickerdoodles
Mexican Wedding Cake
Fudge
The boys would love if we did candy cane cookies, but they are such a pain that I may skip them.
Jesse Tree
We've been doing a Jesse Tree for quite a few years now. Every night we rotate through the kids and someone gets to hang an ornament on the tree and we read the corresponding scripture to go with it. We use the small artificial tree (table top size) that I bought years ago and the same ornaments that Grant and Parker colored years ago. I was thinking of having the little boys color new ones this year, but am undecided on whether I'll do that. The ornaments we're using I got here and when backed on construction paper they've held up very well.
Manger
My father made us a small doll sized manger a few years ago at Parker's request. Every day the kids then fill the manger with a couple pieces of straw/hay for good deeds done and sacrifices made and by Christmas Day the manger is full and we put baby Jesus in his warm, soft bed.
Jotham's Journey
We've been reading this story for many years now and the boys just love this and look forward to it all year. There are now three stories in the series. We read Bartholomew's Passage two years ago and while it was good, it wasn't as good as the original one. Parker really wants to get Tabitha's Travels this year, so we may add another story to our collection. You can find the stories at places like Amazon and Christian Book Distributors.
Advent Wreath
I still haven't made a new wreath out of greens, so we're going to use our pewter one again this year. It's one of those things I say I'm going to do every year and haven't quite gotten to. So we'll light the wreath every night and wait excitedly for each new candle to be lit knowing we're getting that much closer to Christmas Day.
Advent Calendar
When Grant and Parker were little I purchased a magnetic calendar that hangs on the fridge. I'm so happy I did, it's held up very well and the kids enjoy building the nativity scene on the fridge each year.
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