Advent for Families

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings with your families. We spent the week in Michigan with my parents and brother and had the most wonderful time seeing extended family and friends. We ate some amazing food and relaxed and ate some more. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this year was no exception. I really hope to do a recap on our week, but I'm still trying to post about our trip to Boston last month, so no promises.

Since we're three days into December, we are officially done with all things fall and Thanksgiving and we're on to Christmas! 

I love the Christmas season and everything that goes along with it. We managed to decorate before we left for Michigan so all we have waiting for us is the decorating of the Christmas tree! 

I've always loved Christmas, but I find myself loving it more and more now that I have a child (soon to be children; so crazy!). This year is the first year that Griffin really understands that this is a special season. Any time he sees anything related to the season, he says, "It's Christmas!" His enthusiasm is contagious; I'm loving seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. 

We don't have very many established Christmas traditions yet. We do go to the Festival of Lights at our zoo every year, but that's really it so far. We just met our Elf on the Shelf this morning, but we haven't decided just how we want to utilize him yet. As Griffin continues to get older and we add more kids to our family, I think we'll add different traditions that we look forward to each year. 

One thing that Tyler and I absolutely want to do each year is some sort of Advent experience with our children. We have an Advent calendar that we have hanging in our kitchen that we'll do with Griffin this year, but it's definitely our desire that he know why we celebrate Christmas… that it's not about the toys or Santa, but about the fact that Jesus came to earth as a baby to save us from our sinful nature. 

Crossroads is a church here in Cincinnati and their Kids' Club ministry has put together a wonderful Advent online experience this year! Each day, a new activity is unlocked that you can do with your kids to celebrate the wonder of the Christmas season. I love that it's truly a virtual Advent calendar and that each activity is unlocked daily-- no skipping ahead!

There are so many wonderful activities that are a part of this website! There are discussion questions and verses for each day followed up with an activity. Some examples are making a family Christmas music playlist, driving around to look at lights, and making a Christmas feast as a family. 

You can view the activity for December 1 here. Like I said before, there are verses that correspond and a link that will allow them to pop up directly on your screen. It really is a wonderful Advent experience for a busy family during a busy season! 

I really hope you'll take a look each day and see for yourself. I pray that this is the start of a wonderful Christmas season for you and your family!