Tradition has been on my mind lately. I often think about
traditions in the context of “when we have children we will…” and then fill in
the blank. Recently I have been struck by the idea that Team O needs to begin
building our traditions as a family before we have children. The idea is that
children will naturally become a part of those traditions.
I thought this year would be an excellent time to begin an advent
tradition. However, I wasn’t sure where to start. I only knew of Advent done
two ways: 1) chocolates in a calendar and 2) the family tradition our dear
friends the Kaetzel’s passed down to us where a candle is lit each Sunday
leading up to Christmas, scripture is read, songs are sung and the nativity
scene is built each week.
During the advent season I want us to keep Jesus as focus,
I want to do activities that promote ‘us’ time, I want fun and silly little things to get us
into the holiday spirit, and I wanted to
build memories. So from December 1st to the 25th we are
doing a plethora of small and inexpensive things to achieve those goals. I say small because the
last thing I would want to do is build up a tradition that only stresses us
out. The idea is this is a joyful time, Christ IS coming! We are also going to use the devotionals from this online advent book from Desiring God.
Before we started I had to acquire a calendar of some sort. Speaking of stress, google "advent calendars" and you will find many variations that you can make. Sometimes seeing other people's insane creativity flat out stresses me out. One night after work I found myself at JoAnn's meandering the aisles looking for inspiration. And then I stumbled across this beauty and realized - heck no, I'm not making a calendar. I'm buying! I am beyond thrilled with this unexpected (and on sale) purchase!
Our Calendar for many years to come.
I will document our celebration as the month goes on. For now I'll share Days 1-5.
Day 1: Acquire & Decorate a Christmas Tree. Paul hauled this tree over his shoulder the three blocks from the fruit stand to our house!
Day 3: Hang our stockings by the faux fire. Well I guess I could have lit the faux fire, but I honestly don't remember how! Charlie needs a little stocking love too!
Day 4: Write out Christmas cards. Since they're not done I'm not showing our awesome 2012 photo card just yet! I will also say that on Tuesday evening we were exhausted. So we tabled writing out our Christmas cards. Flexibility is key!
Day 5: Share a favorite Christmas memory. Paul telling me about the year he got ALL the video games he asked for made me laugh so hard last night! I remember Christmas PJ's and waking up way too early and eating toaster strudels waiting for my parents to get up. Mmmm Toaster Strudels!!
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