Advent Season and our Christmas Celebration

For Advent this year we continued some of our family traditions we started at the beginning of our marriage.  I made an advent calendar where each day their is a picture or figure of the part of Jesus' birth story that we are on.  Slowly through the month they learn/retell the story.  In addition to learning the birth of Jesus story we have pictures of different people groups up on our Christmas tree.  The kids pick one people group and for the month leading up to Christmas they pray for that people group. On the five Sundays leading up to Christmas we light our Advent candles and Todd leads us in worship.  Last year we focused on one Christmas song to teach the kids and this year we focused on another one.  We also spend time picking out gifts to give Jesus.  Last year we used Samaritan's Purse online gift catalogue also this year we bought clothes for a baby of a local friend who was in need of warm winter clothing.  The kid's picked out buying a well for a village in need of water, buying blankets for the needy, and buying clothing and food for orphans.  Instead of opening presents on Christmas we throw a big birthday celebration for Jesus and give Him our gifts.  The kids woke up to balloons and banners for Jesus' birthday party.  I had found a few games and coloring sheets and activities for them to do.  This year the kids were the shepherds and I made them a scavenger hunt through the house to find the manger and baby Jesus.  Along each stop they had to answer questions relating to the birth of Jesus.  Todd had found a video and some coloring sheets on the people groups the kids had been praying for so we had a time where the kids watched these videos and talked more about the need for these people to know Jesus.  I made a lasagna for lunch and we also had a cookie cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  The kids spent the rest of the day playing "Mary and Joseph" and all of the things we did helped us focus only on Jesus.  With the kids being young it is fun to see their excitement as they enjoy the activities and celebrate Jesus' birth.