Family Advent: You're welcome to it!

I loved Advent as a kid.  The candles lit each Sunday before Christmas and the little cardboard calendars counting down the days to December 25th are the stuff my childhood Christmas memories are made of.  We'd open one little flap ever  morning before school and reveal a surprise picture.  We'd count and squeal with delight at how close we were getting to Christmas.  Times changed and chocolate advent calendars were introduced and us kids thought we'd died and gone to heaven.  And then there was the year my Mom bought each of us kids a chimney stack Advent Calendar.  Each brick was a small box that held a small gift.  Now that was luxurious…I loved Advent that year!

And so, since my daughter was a year old, I’ve done some simple form of an Advent Calendar each December…don’t you always want to continue the traditions that you loved from your childhood??  In the beginning, my Calendar consisted of a simple month of December felt pocket chart with a felt candy cane that moved from pocket to pocket…getting closer and closer to Christmas.  I’m pretty sure I found it at a dollar store somewhere, but my oldest two loved it just the same. One year I went out of my way to deposit tiny chocolates and occasionally a Christmas themed sticker in the day’s pocket before my kids woke up each morning.

Last year mid-way through November I began thinking about how I wanted to “handle” Advent.  With my old Dollar Store Advent Calendar buried in storage somewhere back in Canada, I knew I would be starting from scratch.  And to be honest…I felt good about that.  

What did I want out of Advent?  What did I want my kids to get out of Advent?  I quickly realized that I wanted the best of both Advent worlds - the meaningful time of devotion and preparing our hearts for Christmas, as well as the fun countdown and surprises that often come with traditional children's Advent Calendars.  After a bit of research, I got busy writing my own set of Advent Devotionals that combined Biblical truth with Christmas surprises and fun family activity.  I finally finished it somewhere around midnight on November 30.

A few people have asked me to share it over the past year, and I planned to have it posted here at the beginning of November, but mothering a newborn got the best of that good intention.  It is nothing new...just the truth of scripture and the age-old story of God's redemptive plan woven through the Bible from Genesis 1 to Luke 2.  It's still a bit of a work in progress, but I found it a fun way to celebrate Advent as a family and teach my children The Story of the Bible.  If other parents can use it and feel equipped to disciple their children through this season, then glory to God!  

It is an amazing story.  Of an amazing God.  Using some amazing  and some not-so-amazing people accomplish a plan He set in motion before time even began.  I love Christmas because I love my God and am overwhelmed at His gift to me.  His desire to rescue me from my self.  His desire to walk and talk with me and actually be friends with me.  I want my kids to love Jesus himself...not just His birthday or the gifts that accompany it. To me, that is what Advent has finally come to mean.

If you'd like to take a look, you are welcome to it.  Just click HERE for a PDF copy.  If you are unable to access it, feel free to email me at septfamilyblog@gmail.com and I'll email it directly to you.  

All I ask is that if you use it, give me some feedback.  What did you like, what didn't you like, what does your family need.  And whatever and however you do it...celebrate Advent this year!  Jesus' birthday was and always will be worth the wait!