"Remember to attend"

For me, there is no better 25 days than those during Advent season. What a total delight to know and celebrate the Messiah! It takes all of the self-control I can muster to wait until the blissful day of DECEMBER 1ST to begin the festivities! (This bliss may be a little exaggerated this year because of my head start on Christmas shopping. Excuse me if it's obnoxious.)

This year we are combining lessons and activities from this book:

with Advent object lessons found here (just scroll down the page a little past the ads). These lessons are very short and simple for the sake of our 4 year old. But the scripture reading always provides a spring board for deeper meaning and discussion for my 8 and 10 year olds.

We are also doing one week of "Christmas Around the World" using ideas from Heidi's blog. We own most of the books she has recommended from Decembers past. My kids LOVE studying other cultures and I think this study really gives them a global perspective of Christianity.

I used all of these materials with the children two years ago, and it was the best Christmas of my life. The Lord was gracious to really give us a rich, meaningful sense of worship. I know this year will look very different, as the children are all 2 years older. But I am excited to engage in their conversations, see their artwork, pray, read, and sing with them, open God's word and camp out in the gospels together, and bake, bake, bake!

"We may ignore, but we cannot evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always easy to penetrate. The real labor is to remember to attend."

~Armand Nicholi