Advent Activities

Last year we celebrated the anticipation of Jesus' birth by unwrapping a Christmas-themed book or movie everyday for December 1st-24th.  Along with each book, I included a bible verse we would read everyday.  It was really a great activity.  This year I decided to do something a little bit different.  I found a super cute Advent ornament banner HERE at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Whether you homeschool or not, she really has great ideas and I enjoy reading her blog when I have a chance.  It is pretty straight forward and I really like how family-centered the activities are.  I used a lot of her ideas {I don't have time to reinvent the wheel over here!} and added some of our own to make it personable for our family.

First, I got out my handy dandy spiral . . . I use it for EVERYTHING, although this is a new one, I used up the last one.  I looked at our schedule, then Shawn and I went through the activities and decided what all we were going to do.

Then, I printed out the Advent banner pieces and cut them out.  Then, I wrote all of my activities for each day on the back.  Next, I punched a small hole in each triangle and threaded them through on some twine. {Ah hem . . . this is the same twine I untangled the day before yesterday, I knew I would need it! ;-)} I wasn't going to use the clothes pins, but after putting all of them on the twine, it needed something else to help keep them in place.  In the tutorial she used mini clothes pins, but I opted for normal sized ones since that was all I had and I actually had to had to borrow those from my sister! The mini ones probably work a little better since they are light weight, but these worked out just fine.  I hung them up below the mantle and voila!

Here are the activities we are doing:

1. Candle lit bubble bath {I think Allyson will love this}
2. Read 3 Christmas books
3. Make paper snowflakes
4. Make glass ornaments with glitter
5. Pray for Star of Hope donations and have kids pick out some of their toys to donate
6. Coke floats tonight!
7. Make a Christmas craft
8. Deliver Star of Hope donations
9. Explain The Giving Tree we signed up for and pray for the family
10. Have a Polar Express night! {PJs, popcorn and movie}
11. "The Trailblazer Express" click HERE for details
12. Pipe Cleaner Christmas crafts
13. Dress up for dinner
14. Make edible Christmas trees
15. Family game night & deliver Giving Tree family gifts
16. Make Nativity Scene out of shapes
17. Dance and Sing to Christmas music
18. Watch "Veggie Tales Little Drummer Boy" with popcorn, of course!
19. Pray for Giving Tree Family
20. Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
21. Make Christmas Cookies
22. Have hot chocolate and marshmallows
23. Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn
24. Make Jesus a birthday cake and read Luke chapters 1-2
25. Merry Christmas!

I am really excited about this!! I think we will all enjoy it.

And while all the above is super fun and exciting things to do together as a family, I did not want to lose sight of the truth meaning of Christmas: Jesus' birth.  I found Truth in the Tinsel on Confessions of a Homeschooler's blog and became intrigued.  I went to the Truth in the Tinsel website and began reading and really liked the daily bible reading and the ornament craft each day to back up the bible passage.  Long story short, I ended up purchasing the eBook and a supplemental ornament document (in lieu of making the ornaments in the book since it might be too much for me to take on with everything else going on, i.e. homeschool, moving to Africa, you know the normal things!).  I used a 20% off discount code from Confessions of a Homeschooler and got both items for less than $10 total.

I was telling Shawn all about it this afternoon and I think what I like about this and the Advent banner is that it gives me a plan, it is already laid out for me.  I am more apt to follow through with something if I have a schedule, otherwise it will end up being one of those "I should do that" or "man I wish I would have done that."

Here are the two little ones during their candle lit bath tonight.  When I first included this in the list I didn't think it would be have been a hit, but I have to admit it was pretty cool.  It made bath time so calming and it was something new for our bath time routine.  We will be doing this one again!