Advent 2009

The word advent, meaning 'the coming' in Latin, has been celebrated by Christians for centuries.  Centuries ago, Christians felt that celebrating the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for one day was inadequate.  Believers felt a time of preparation immediately beforehand was essential.  They would take time to meditate on God's incredible gift of sending his Son and take time to teach thier children the tremendous meaning of Christmas.  I'm sure most of you already know this, but I didn't so I had to research!

This year Jared and I decided to also celebrate advent for the month of Decemeber.  Most of the advent calendar things you can buy in a store have little cubbies to put treats, candy, little toys in for each day.  I'm guessing the advent tradition has slowly become more secular over the years, so we decided to create our own advent calendar! 

Under each day is a verse or group of verses along with an activity or craft to go along with the verse.  I know Katelyn is only 2, but I hope she is able to learn from this month long preparation what Christmas is truely about.  On December 1st we read Isaiah 7:14 and our activity was to create the advent calendar.  On December 2nd we read Isaiah 9:6-7 and created a wreath out of Katelyn's handprints our of Christmas wrapping paper.

 

On December 3rd we read Isaiah 32:1 and we were supposed to color a gingerbread man (but that didn't happen b/c we had company over). 

Then today we read Isaiah 40:39-41 and we made a snowman out of cottonballs, buttons and GLUE (Katelyn's favorite thing!).  I'm loving doing the advent calendar.  It has really been a neat time of reflection for myself and I'm praying it is teaching Katelyn the true meaning of CHRISTmas!