Advent

For the second year, my family will be celebrating Advent. It's an awesome tradition that helps my kids remember what the meaning of Christmas really is to us.

Two years ago, right after Christmas, while going shopping at the after Christmas sales with my mom, I came across this really great Advent calendar. At 90% off, I'm going to buy a lot of things that had very little reason yet (we won't talk about my shopping habits in this blog post though) but this one was an awesome find. I really have to take a picture of it...

Anyway, it's like any reusable Advent calendar thing, it has little doors for each day with the number for the day. I figured I'd use it, and I think it only cost me a couple of bucks anyway, so there it sat until Christmas season rolled around the following year.

Christmas lately (for the last 4 years), I've been decorating my house with a new theme every year. Each theme was based on a scent. Cinnamon one year, gingerbread...you get it. This year is peppermint.

Add the tradition of advent with my theme of the year and I had something in my little boxes that was a fun family activity for every night. Last year, that was how we decorated the tree. The kids made ornaments at least twice a week last year...it was a really full tree when it was finished.

This year I decided to break out old decorations and just add as we go when necessary. We may make one ornament a week. If the tree gets too full I'll put away some of the store bought decorations quietly after the kids go to bed at night.

Tonight, for the first night of our Advent calendar, we made candy canes out of chenille sticks. We talked about what the shape of a candy cane reminds us of. We turned it upside-down and talked about what words start with J. The kids eventually caught on and started to talk about Jesus. I love it when the conversation goes that way with only a little prodding. Ali and Zoe were talking about baby Jesus and how "Christmas is about him."

Some days we might read stories, some days make fun stuff, some days we might start early and bake something. I'm even thinking of a family outing this year for it. It's all about the family activity, and helping the kids solidify in their minds what Christmas is really all about. It's what the kids look forward to.

Maybe some day my kids will roll their eyes at me making them come open the little door and wonder why they can't go out with their friends for almost the entire month of December, but I will continue to be that mean, dorky mom who makes them go through the motions and tell me about what Christmas is really all about. It's a family tradition that I'm making up as I go along because I'm like that.