Back when Houston was a small baby we were living here in Alabama. At the time we were in a small group at our church here that was lead by our friends Wes and Tina. Wes shared with our group that year all about Advent. We had never even heard of Advent. He explained what is was and all about the advent wreath and candles that were used every night in the devotions. That was the first year that our church began celebrating Advent together on Sunday mornings in December and it was the year that our family began advent celebrations together every night of December. We haven't looked back. For us, Advent is the most wonderful part of December. We gather around our advent wreath every night to read about our Savior, sing songs to Him, read Scriptures, and celebrate the whole reason for the season. As our family has grown and the children have gotten older, advent in many ways has become even more special to us. We are so thankful for our friend Wes and our church who pointed us to this tradition years ago.
This year, Emmy had the special opportunity to light the candle at church on that very first Advent Sunday. This really meant a lot to her.
For several years now I had been hearing about a book on our homeschool board that families were using during their advent celebrations. It was written to be used during your Advent celebrations. It is part of a three book series, this first one being called Jotham's Journey. We decided this year to purchase Jotham's Journey to read every night during our Advent devotions. I am so glad we did! It's a really incredible book! You follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem. If you haven't yet checked this book out- do so! Our pastor actually mentioned it this year from the pulpit on the 2nd Sunday of Advent.
As part of our Advent devotions we are reading one chapter a night of Jothams Journey, we sing some Christmas Carols or bible songs, we have a time of prayer and then the kids are able to chose one to two books out of our Christmas basket every night to read. We prefer to read the books on Christ's birth during our advent devotions. And then of course, their is the highly anticipated blowing out of the advent candles! The kids take turns every night. As with everything else this Christmas, I have loved watching Camden take Advent in! I have a picture below of our advent wreath that we use every night in our devotions.
We have several advent calendars hanging around our home that we use every December. The kids take turns placing one thing a day on each of the calendars to count down until Christmas Day. It's a great way to build that anticipation up for Christmas Day (not that we really need to do so) LOL! This year I surprised the kids with some Sticker Advent Calendars. They were able to create the manger scene on each of their calendars and then they have been putting up one star a day on their calendars to count down until Christmas Day. Check out our picture below.
