Celebrating Advent

Happy holidays to all of my readers. As we approach this holiday season our family has decided to refocus on the Christ in CHRISTmas. With the hustle and bustle of Christmas concerts, shopping, gifts and other festivities its easy to overlook the the true meaning of Christmas. After moving to New York our family found it difficult to find a church home we felt called to and our daily living with Christ fell to the wayside as we went along with our new daily routine. This past year we finally found our new Church home and have strived to make Godly changes in our lives and in the lives of our children.

This past Sunday heralded the first Sunday in Advent. We have yet to unpack the lost Advent wreath, maybe this year we will find it OR I will find an idea for one on Pinterest.  As part of our renewed faith I decided to make our own Advent calendar this year instead of getting one of the chocolate filled ones from the store.

Over the next 24 days we will be reading through the nativity story with our children before tucking them in for the night.

We are a few days behind so Tonight we read days 1 and 2, and tomorrow we will read days 3 and 4 to catch up. The children loved it and I loved that we are making memories and helping our little ones grow in their relationship with God. Hopefully they will remember this for years to come and remember that although Christmas is a time for Santa and presents the true meaning will also be with them.

If you want to make your own advent chain you can find template from Less Ordinary Designs (she has a great premade one herself but its completely customizable) and the content/bible verses from Sweeter Than Sweets (her advent calendar is amazing and something I plan to do when I have more time to plan this instead of being 2 days late!).