Today is the beginning of the Advent Celebration for Christians. The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival" and is celebrated beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas each year.

Our family has never been very good about putting aside a special time each day to celebrate Advent. This year it is my hope and prayer that things will be different.

I have planned something for each day and everyone has agreed to meet around the Advent Wreath at 6:00 p.m. for our family celebration.

As with all things I will have to be flexible. I had some special things planned today and then had to change gears when I found out Dave would not be home (remember he is on an Airplane on his way to a business meeting tomorrow a.m.).

So, being the ever flexible (ha ha ha) mother of five, I ordered pizza and we began our celebration around the dining room table.

We have a wreath made out of fresh pine which smells yummy. Four candles are placed around the wreath and a white candle which symbolises Christ's purity is placed into the center. Zachary, our oldest son, lit the first candle of Advent tonight which is the Candle of Hope that reminds us that Christ will come again to fulfill all of God’s promises to us.

After the candle was lit and the kids were eating there pizza I read out loud from this Advent book. This book is wonderful and really held both the older and younger kids interest.

In years past I have hung an extra stocking on the mantel with all the others to represent Jesus. Inside the extra stocking were 24 pieces of paper, each with something written on it to help you remember the reason for the season. This year I put the little pieces of paper inside our Advent house. Each night one of the children will take a piece of paper out from behind the door for that evening and read it to the family. Tonight's piece of paper said this:

All that is asked of us from you, Jesus, is that we love one another as you have loved us.

The more we share our heart, our life, our love, the fuller we become. Thank You, God.

We discussed the meaning of what was written for a few minutes. The family is suppose to implement what ever the piece of paper says for the next 24 hours. The kids were a little agast that they had to actually love each other like Christ loves them for a whole 24 hours, but they agreed to give it a try. As of bedtime I wasn't feeling a whole lot of love. Tyler burped on his sister just to gross her out which defintely worked. When reminded of the gift he was suppose to be giving Jesus he apologized and said he forgot.

In the last two minutes.

Since we talked about it.

Oh well, he has a whole 23 hours and 50 minutes to work on it.

Lastly, I got this idea from here. I wrapped all of our Christmas books and placed them in a basket under the Christmas tree. Each night one of the younger children will pick a book, unwrap it, and then we will read it together as a family. This was a big hit.

All in all our little celebration took around 20 minutes and the entire family took part and seemed to enjoy it. We are looking forward to tomorrow night when Dave will be home and we can all be together.

I hope you enjoyed me sharing about our families plans for Advent. Please let me know if you do anything special or have any family traditions you would like to share.

Merry Christmas my friends.

Labels: christmas