Today being December 1st, we began our Christmas ADVENTure. I've explained our tradition in year's past so I won't explain it again. (However, if you must know... click HERE.)
Joey bought a "gingerbread village" that the kids have been itching to do, so this year we started day one of Advent with a gingerbread house ornament. It looks like this:
We read Psalm 127:1 that says "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over a city, the watchmen stand guard in vain."
Joey did a good job explaining that verse to the kids, but for some reason they didn't really grasp the meaning of it. Too young, maybe? I don't know. It could have also been the fact that they could hardly sit still knowing that as soon as daddy finished talking they were going to be making a sugar icing/gumdrop/candy filled gingerbread village. (go figure)
On to the mission of the day...
Ours looked EXACTLY like the picture on the box. See...
HA! We broke enough pieces that we only had enough gingerbread to make 4 of the five houses. Then that one in the back didn't get any decor because we totally lost interest after three houses. It was beyond frustrating to work with those tiny little houses. (They are literally smaller than my fist.) Oh well, the kids still had fun.
I, however, decided that trying to make gingerbread houses look like the picture on the box makes me feel like a cotton headed ninny muggins.
I think it is great to celebrate the days leading up to Christmas with some sort of Advent tradition. Even more fun when that Advent tradition points our families back to the real meaning of Christmas - the birth of our Jesus. My friend Natasha is doing Advent with her kiddos using things around the house. Her ideas are super creative (and I may just steal a few of them this year!) My friend Whitney is doing Advent with her adorable little 6 month old using one of those traditional Advent calendars that you lift a flap for each day. (Never to young to start! - Love it!)
If your family celebrates Advent in some special way, I'd love to hear about it. I love reading how other families make this season special. Do share!
3 comments:
Great post. I Love creative family traditions. I am going to spend some time reading your post from last year. So just wait until I post my second half and it might look familiar. : )
You have a beautiful and amazing family.
Your recent post with pictures of your grand-parents and such made the tears flow!
Have a beautiful day,
Natasha
Well, I copied off of you last year and bought a little wooden advent calendar that has 25 boxes filled with different ornaments. To keep things simple, I just make up a verse that suits the ornament and we hang it on the tree. Of course, I am not the best about following through and we never finished last year! I am sure I will do better this year, especially considering that I have not even started it yet!
Also, did you know that you can get pre-built gingerbread houses at Target? I was so excited to discover that because assembling them is always such a pain! I will try to post some pics today of our house and these clever little gumdrop trees that someone showed me last night and we are going to make this morning, too. I love Christmas!
Those gingerbread houses are just IMPOSSIBLE to figure out, I tell ya. The icing is just so hard to work with. I love your Advent ideas and activities! So fun! I will have to steal them with Levi gets older. :)
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