Advent

Thanks to good friends (practically family) of ours who sent an advent calendar and booklet of ideas for each day, as well as my sister-in-law who made an advent calendar for us since we left our Jesse tree in Cameroon (see a picture of what it looked like here... we'll make a replacement for next year), we have really had fun this year learning about the events just before/after Jesus’ birth.

Favorite advent activities:

-Playing “Zechariah” by setting a timer and requiring someone to be silent (while trying to get them to talk/laugh!) for a minute. When the timer went off, they could yell “Praise the Lord!” Lucy wasn’t so great at that game :)
-Visit a living nativity presentation
-Have a pillow fight after talking about how Jesus’ didn’t have a crib :)
-Singing silent night and eating dinner by candlelight
-Making a glowing angel using paper with a cut out of an angel and f lashlight and letting the kids dance around with it shining in the dark
-Watching Sam participate in his very first Christmas program at church. He volunteered to say a line which he said proudly into a microphone (memorized it). He was a least a head shorter than all the other kids who said line (I think most were 6 years and older).
-Having a treasure hunt with star clues leading to baby Jesus
-Lots of singing/dancing to Christmas music
-Visiting a nursing home and making Christmas cards with the residents (was challenging with the little ones, in some ways, but also really good)
-Eating candy canes and learning about their message
-Watching “the nativity story” and answering all sorts of questions about it
-Driving around at night to see Christmas lights

I would love to hear ideas of things you’ve done with your family!