Advent in the Jones home...

So a couple of years ago, I had not ever really given any thought to ADVENT.

I sorta knew what it was, but didn't know too too much about it (and honestly still don't know tons).

But with kids a lot of things change and you start to think about things in different ways; 

you want the best for your kids ya know?

One of our biggest goals is to point our boys toward Jesus in all that we do, 

and I don't know of a better time to do so than at Christmas.

With that being said, I started looking into this Advent......

I think Blaine's first year around Christmas, I mostly just looked and thought of ideas that would be 

good for our family. 

Around the Christmas time in 2009, my MOPS group made a preschool version of an Advent calendar.

It is such a simple way to tell the Christmas story and have the kids retell it.

The calendar is just a placemat with 24 ribbon strips threaded through and tied around 

a strip of paper with 1-2 sentences telling the Christmas story.

Each day in December (starting December 1),  we let one of the boys pull out 

the next slip of paper that's tied in a pretty bow.

We read that day's addition to the Christmas story and then start from day 1 

and read all the way through each slip of paper, so that each day the boys hear how the story builds.

On Day 24 (Christmas eve) the boys will have heard the entire story and likely be able to retell majority of it;

they are already starting to be able to quote portions of the first 10 days or so of the story:)

Another Advent calendar we have is similar to the previous one, but it is with books.

Each board book tells a portion of the Christmas story.

We tried this last year (when Blaine was 2 1/2 and Walt was 1) but the boys just weren't quite ready; 

they both really enjoy it this year and I like it because the books are start from scripture.

Another fun thing we do around Advent is bring out the Christmas books.

(Last year we wrapped up a ton of books and a few happys and let

 the boys open a new 'gift' each night in December.)

Sure we have books that talk about the holidays, but we try to mostly read books that point to 

the real Christmas story.  Here are some of our favorites.....

The boys also enjoy playing with their Little People Nativity scene set they received as a gift from 

Grandmother and Granddaddy last year.

(Our rule is that all the pieces have to stay on the coffee table so they don't get lost)

We also love spending family time together,

making cookies,

Eating them, 

Looking at lights, decorating the tree/house, making a birthday cake for Jesus & sing Happy Birthday to him,

watching Christmas movies, getting new Christmas pj's (for Christmas eve), making gifts for teachers, shopping for and filling Operation Christmas child boxes together,

and going to new adventures such as Disney on Ice together.

We try to spend a lot of intentional time together as a family enjoying each other &

choosing activities that let the boys experience the spirit of Christmas (giving) and point them to Jesus.