Monday Madness: Advent

Dear Friends and Family,

One thing we love doing as a family during the Christmas season is following Advent in some way. We have done many different ones over the years. Some more complicated or time consuming than others.

Last year we tried a new one that even our older kids took to. (By the way, this is NOT a paid advertisement, we just love it!)
 We discovered a little Shepherd that helps kids find the Christ in Christmas. It is called Shepherd On The Search.

There is a little kit you can buy with the Shepherd and a storybook. We also chose to get the Advent devotional book and CD of Christmas songs to go with it.

You can also go online and get ideas that go along with learning about searching for Christ at their website.

This year, I combined our Advent calendar with a daily tradition to do as a family. Everyone put in their votes for their favorite Christmas traditions earlier in the month and we made a list. Some are as simple as eating popcorn and watching a Christmas movie, walking downtown to look at the lights or reading books with a fire crackling in the background. Some are more detailed like baking Christmas cookies and delivering them to older saints in our church.

Every evening after dinner, we sit down and have our devotional reading. Everyone taking turns reading Scriptures. Then we look for where our Shepherd, whom we have named Matthias, is hiding in the house. Then there is an activity that often has to do with reaching out to the community. Then we do our family tradition. Then after people go to bed, someone new gets to hide the Shepherd for others to find the next day.

This is something we have looked forward to every year for the past ten years or so. Maybe longer as my memory is often wrong the older I get!

There is something sweet about once again reading the Christmas Story, remembering why Baby Jesus came to earth and bonding with your family that makes this activity sweet to us.

Does your family celebrate Advent?

Here are a couple of pictures, one of the box our Shepherd came in and the other of where Shelby hid Matthias in the dining room last night:

Here's a fun link to some pics we took of my mom's cat two years ago: Silly Kitty.

Have a blessed Christmas and continue to search for Christ in Christmas!

Heidi