Preparing For Christmas...


It's already December 4th, but still early enough to talk about preparing for Christmas!  Today's post isn't about decorating and gift buying...I will get to some of that in another post.  This one is about preparing myself for blessings during this season of advent and working on renewing my attitude of anticipation and joy for the second coming of Christ by reflecting on the events that led up to His first coming. How do I do that? I am intentional with my time and make it a priority to read the bible and pray each day. I also try to focus outward and think of others and I try to do things that bring joy to others.

I have quite a collection of advent calendars...this one is a favorite and I have used it both at home and at school back in my teaching days... For each day there is a book that tells the progression of the story of the "first Christmas."  It is very sweet and a great way to encourage young readers.  But any age can benefit from the simple message. This one I put out every year is probably 15 years old.  It must be popular because I saw one in Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago...or was it Books-A-Million (hmmmmm)!

 

 

While Nicole was in town for Thanksgiving we made an Advent Ring Calendar for Claire to use with her favorite story bible

 

 

We used chipboard cutouts of different Christmas shapes that were on a ring (2011 find at Michael's) .  We covered them with scrapbook paper, typed out the daily readings, printed them on stickers, and put one on each cut out!

 

 

Claire, Mommy, and Daddy have a special time each day to put aside the busyness of Christmas stuff and focus on the more important aspect of the season!

 

I decided to make myself an advent scripture ring after working on Claire's... cause you know how I love index cards and fabric!  There are lots of resources for advent daily scripture reading on the internet.  I used one that I found on  pinterest  and "tweaked" it with scripture from other advent calendars I already had!

 

I know I will enjoy this every year and the beauty of it is there are still blank cards that I can write on and add to my advent calendar in years to come!

 

I hope you have an advent tradition that you look forward to each year for opening your heart to the true gift of Christmas.  If you don't, use one of the ideas above...I promise you it will be a blessing beyond measure!!

 

 

Thanksgiving is our first holiday together as a family after the girls go back to school in the fall.  We always make trips to Vandy and now UGA and of course Birmingham to visit and go to football games; but nothing is better than being together under one roof!  We start the festivities with our annual Macy's Parade Breakfast.  This year we had fun with family and friends.  There was food and something for everyone...coloring, horse shoes, croquet, trivia...did I mention there was a parade??

 

  

Claire made a new friend, Noah, and the two were inseparable all morning!

 

 

Breakfast, the parade, and even the dog show are long over and it's time to transition to the big turkey dinner.  We have our extended family with us every year and feel very blessed to be together once again, come what may!

 

 

On Saturday morning we went to the Yacht Club for breakfast and to take pictures for our Christmas card.  This year we honored our colleges! We had fun and took some great pics...only there was a smudge on the lens (you might have mistaken it for a halo over David and Nicole's head in the picture below;)

 

 

Back home we discovered the smudge on nearly every photo...but that doesn't stop us we simply have a do-over!

 

 

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving!  I am looking forward to

blogging about our Christmas this year so stay tuned!