Advent

 tomorrow marks the beginning of advent in our house {advent officially began on sunday}.

the advent activities have been planned and our advent calendar is filled with slips of paper containing our daily bible reading and our activity or craft for the day.

celebrating advent over the past few years has helped me to slow down and be intentional about my time during the Christmas season.  i have a tendency to be task driven.  even though my intentions might be great my to do list can take.  the advent calendar, like our summer bucket list, is an accountability tool. a way to enjoy the Christmas season without looking back and wishing we would have done certain activities or attended local events.

the one thing i have learned over the past few years is to not over plan our advent.  if we have something scheduled for the day, like the church Christmas program, that might be our advent activity for the day.  i want to keep things fun and meaningful.

i will be documenting our advent activities each day.  there will be some things we have done every year but they are the kids' favorites.  there will be some new things on our calendar this year as well.  

our daily devotional this year is Tabitha's Travels.  We have read the other two books in the series and my kids have loved them.  We are all excited to start this book in the series.

do you celebrate advent?  if you are celebrating, i would love to know your families favorite activities.