Advent

O.K. so I'm going out on a limb. I am going to make myself accountable to all you quiet, but faithful, blog readers. We, at the Roth house, are going to celebrate Advent. There, I said it. Now we need to make it happen.

The first year we were married, Jeff and I had an Advent Wreath, and all the right colored candles, and we anticipated the coming of Christ as a baby. It was a sweet, sweet time. I have long since wanted to do it with the kids, but alas, it's so easy to get distracted during the holiday season. However, last spring we had an amazingly motivating woman come talk to our mom's group, and I made a decision that I would at least do SOMETHING to set apart Christmas as a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, my Lord. I cannot let another season go by, without attempting to instill in my children some of the rich tradition and heritage of our faith. I cannot let it be about Santa claus for another year, it must be about Christ, or it is nothing at all. If my kids grow up to give great gifts, fill great stockings, and teach their kids about Santa, - but don't have any traditions anchoring their families in Advent, I have made a huge, huge mistake.

For the record, I think Santa is a fun tradition. I am not opposed to Santa, nor do I think he's the anti-christ. We have had fun with stockings, reindeer, gingerbread houses and all sorts of American traditional Christmas stuff. I'm just talking about doing something intentional to continue developing Christ traditions as well.

Here's my list so far:

1. Beginning Sunday, November 29th, we will be lighting the advent wreath each week.

2. On December 5/6 we will be learning about, and celebrating St. Nicholas. We will do our gingerbread house/train on Saturday, and we might do our stockings on the 6th instead of Christmas morning. I know, SHOCKING, but stockings began because of St. Nicholas, and if we move them to December 6th, we 1. spread out the fun, 2. connect the event with it's purpose and so strengthen positive tradition, and 3. protect Christmas morning as a time for the family to celebrate Jesus. I confess I haven't decided 100% about this, but I'm considering it. Jeff is game either way - I checked!

3. We will set up Bethlehem, but not the whole nativity scene, in early December. Then, we will move a pregnant Mary (I'm splurging on the Willow Tree figurines Christmas set) and Joseph toward Bethlehem from a different location in the house. (Nazareth) I may make a field somewhere for the kids to see the shepherds and sheep, and I think we start the wise men from a LONG ways a way. If I've paid attention, they are not supposed to arrive until January 6th, on epiphany. Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem on Christmas even, and Baby Jesus doesn't arrive in the manger until Christmas morning.

4. Last Christmas at the Pursuits Desk at Salem Alliance I bought a little book called "Getting Ready for Christmas." It has daily devotional thoughts and activities for young families. I'm going to try to keep it at the dinner table starting December 1st, and read it whenever we are together at the table. We'll see how this one goes- I'm not always great at the maintenance stage of my bright ideas - hopefully we'll read it more often than not.

So, that's it for now. We'll see how I do at follow through. You can ask me how I'm doing if you want. I'll try to post here at least once a week for those of you who might try to do some of this with us. May your advent season be full of the richness of Christ, our Risen King!