Advent

First, I feel the need to address why my child is wearing a short-sleeve shirt and shorts in the middle of winter.  He's warm-blooded.  That's all I can come up with.

Our Advent activities were pretty simple this year.  I was feeling convicted about filling up our holiday season with a bunch of busy activities that really didn't have anything to do with preparing us to celebrate the birth of Christ.  I was trying to do too many Christmas/Advent things, and felt I was doing none of them well.  So, I simplified a few days into December.  We've done a Christmas book a day for years now, and the kids always enjoy that.  Each year I wrap up 25 of our favorite Christmas books and we have the kids open up one each night and read it aloud as a family.  Every year I add a new, special book on Christmas, and we get to add to our collection over the years as well.  I plan on doing this tradition until the kids beg me not to read them Christmas books anymore at the age of 40.

I also made an advent calendar, which had a simple activity for each day.  Some days there were scripture verses to read, some days we enjoyed the blessings of the season, some were more special.  We baked cookies, shopped for children who weren't as blessed as us, sang Christmas songs, watched Christmas movies, and enjoyed the simple blessings this year.  Once we simplified things, it felt so nice.  We could truly celebrate the birth of our Savior!