Advent

I was so excited when I found this advent calendar, I'd been looking for one for years that didn't have Santa and candy canes as the main theme, that was wooden. Isn't it cute? It even came with little chocolates inside.

I also did an advent calendar craft this year every day (well, ideally every day) with our kids that went through the Bible telling the story leading up to Christ's birth. I was going to make my own but it just took too much time so I went with the online one.... www.theadventevent.com

Each day we would read through the Bible and make an ornament that related to the story, and then sing Christmas songs. I'd like to say it went perfect every day and that the kids learned SO much...but there were days where we had to do like 3 ornaments to catch up, and the amount of crayons everywhere and cut paper etc was a little overwhelming for me sometimes, and with a newborn it didn't go perfectly cause I'd have to sometimes feed/burp in the middle of it all. BUT the kids were learning about the true meaning of Christmas, and that's what mattered to me.

My prayer is that each year we go through the advent calendar my kiddos would see the beauty of the Messiah coming. How the people LONGED for a rescuer from their sin, and how amazing and exciting it must have been for Him to be announced, and born. And THAT'S what we are celebrating. The long awaited rescuer. The only one who can forgive us.