Monday, December 04, 2006

Advent

Advent is my very favorite time of year. It always has been. On the way to church yesterday, I told the kids about many of the Advent traditions I enjoyed as a kid. We also talked about the story of Jesus' birth. I asked them who had come to tell Mary that she was going to have a baby. Benjamin answered, "A fairy." Well... fairy, angel... I can see how you might be confused. They both have wings.

Being inspired by Amanda and Stephanie, I really wanted to make some kind of advent calendar for the kids. We have a tree in our foyer, so it seemed the perfect place for some advent goodies. (Besides, I don't have any other ornaments with which to decorate it. All our special ornaments are on the tree in the living room.)

I've had several small and large projects over the last few weeks and I seriously considered crossing this idea off my list. It just seemed so ambitious and I had different ideas about how to do it that would have been much more time consuming. And probably much cuter. But not likely any more appreciated.

So, I tried to make it very simple and it turned out to be much quicker than I had anticipated. And I'm so glad I did it. I think the kids are, too. They are at such fun ages that I really want to try to create some special projects, activities and memories that we can all enjoy.

I stamped numbers on little tags, hung them on red and green paper bags and put a note and/or little goodie in each bag.

I had considered doing 48 bags, but quickly got ahold of myself and made just 24. It's important to teach sharing! (And time management on the part of the mommy.)

I'm sure you've noticed our wonderful grandfather clock in the top picture. It's nearly 300 years old and has been in my family all over the country. I'll post more about it sometime.

Happy Advent!

5 comments:

Beate Knappe said...

This is an wonderfull Idea, I mean the advent calender

Samantha said...

When we lived in Germany, they had advent calendars. My favorite was the one with the tiny wooden trinkets for each day - doll-house sized stuff. Too cute! Not too shabby with the chocolate ones either. I made my own advent tree a couple years ago. All home-made ornaments. Then I filled little favor boxes and numbered them and decorated the tree with the ornaments in the boxes each day. Was quite fun to make and put up.

Lisa Walton said...

I am impressed at how clean your house is! I am jealous.
Lisa

Sue Seibert said...

Deborah, I love your Advent calendar tree. What a great idea!

Beautiful clock...wonderful to have something in the family that long.

Anonymous said...

First Christmas in your new house, NICE!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

I made an Advent Calendar some years ago, basically a quilt (all in Christmas/holiday print cotton)in basic blue then 72 bags (blue printed cotton) with stitched on satin ribbons - 3 bags each in a stitched out square on the quilt....24 squares. It has travelled half way across the globe to whereever we were spending Christmas and it went up last year for the last time. Oh, it has a long casing on the back for running a metal hanger and hanging very much like hanging a quilt at a show.