The Advent Event...

A new house, a new church, a new tradition...Advent. Prior to coming to Lenoir and visiting Mt. Vernon my only knowledge of what Advent was consisted of a wreath in the middle of the kitchen table with candles that you lit each Sunday before Christmas and a calendar with windows that the girls would open each night in December to discover a small piece of chocolate which they would usually fight over before breaking it in half and heading to bed. I never knew the real meaning behind Advent or the purpose of celebrating it, but that has changed this year thanks to Mt. Vernon and MOPS ( a mothers of preschoolers group that I now belong to at the church). This church encourages the celebration of Advent and it has brought a new level of joy in our home. After taking a class at the church on what Advent was and how to celebrate it I decided that this would be a great way to keep the girls focused on the true meaning of Christmas and it would be a wonderful time of family togetherness.
The class began by helping me to understand that Advent meant "coming", and just like the people of the Bible waited eagerly for God to reveal His promise in the coming of a Savior, we also can spend this Christmas season waiting with joy and anticipation on the birthday of Christ. I then set out to make an Advent log which is different than the wreath because you light it every night of Advent instead of just on Sunday. I decided this would help our family stay focused. I wanted the girls to know what it was like to anticipate Christ being born just like the people in the Bible so we start each morning with a "reason for the Season" box. This is a small box that contains a "heart reminder", a scripture to go with the reminder, and a little paper ornament with the heart reminder symbol on it which the children hang on a small tree called a Jesse Tree. This is based on the proverb which says "Put something where you can see it so your eye will remind your heart" ( you can Google Jesse tree or heart reminders to get the verses and the list of items) this starts the day already with a sense of anticipation. Then in the evening after dinner and pajamas we begin our time of Advent. The girls get a little cushion to sit on ( we made one out of a white pillowcase that they drew on with Sharpie markers and stuffed with cotton) and I give them a little snack in a cup to hold while we are doing the devotions ( this helps keep them still mostly...haha!) each night of advent the snack gets a little better starting with something like Goldfish and then as it gets closer to Christmas we may do ice cream or sugar cookies ( in keeping with the building of anticipation) then we light the candles and we begin the devotion time with Jason reading the nightly scripture. I was given a notebook at the church class that contains the scripture for each night  but you can look up Advent scripture readings online and find some listed. The ones that I have are grouped into a theme for each week of Advent starting with week one "Reflecting on the Promise" which contains short readings from the Old Testament about why we needed a Savior, the second week is "Waiting on the Promise" which contains readings from prophets in the Old Testament, the third week is "preparing for the Promise" which are readings from Isaiah and the New Testament, and then the fourth week until Christmas day is "Celebrating the Promise" readings from the Christmas story ending on Christmas day with the birth of Christ. After Jason reads the scripture I usually explain what it means and then we say a short prayer. We then go over a Christmas memory verse that was chosen by me to teach the children- kind of like a theme verse for all of the Advent season. We then end this devotion time with a prayer for a missionary, lost family members or church staff members. Then I let one of the girls (we rotate who it is) pick out a Christmas book to read. ( I mix Christian story books and secular story books but some people only do Christian based Christmas books). After we read the book we blow out the candles. Total time for all of this is about 20 minutes. We then have an Advent paper chain that counts down to Christmas and we rip off one about 10 minutes before bedtime. Each link has an activity written on it that we do before bed. Some of them are as simple as talking about Mary and Joseph and giving your mommy and daddy a hug, some are crafty things to do like draw a christmas picture for your room and some of them are family time activities like pop popcorn and watch a Christmas movie. I made most of them up on my own but I had an idea sheet that they gave me at our class. Another thing we do each day, which we normally do in the afternoon when Jason gets home from work, is that we have a mason jar on the counter and I have a calendar that says things such as " put a dime in the jar for every birthday you have had" or "thank God for giving you shelter put a nickel in the jar for each room in your home" We then collect that days money from each person and put it in the jar. Once Advent is over we will donate it to a local charity. This was an idea that one of my Sunday School couples gave us and we have had a lot of fun doing it.
I have enjoyed learning about Advent and in the midst of presents, parties, programs, and Santa I am looking forward to taking this time each evening to direct our family to the true meaning of Christmas and help our children to focus with joy and anticipation the birth of our Savior. May you have a blessed Advent season and a very Merry Christmas!
"but when the time had fully come, God sent His son."  Galations 4:4a