I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love that God, in His
wisdom, gave different seasons and feasts to the Church. Right now we
are in the midst of Advent. A special time when we not only prepare for
the celebration of Christ's birth, but continue to prepare our hearts
and minds for when He comes again (which we should be doing all the
time, but these four weeks are a extra reminder).
Some of our families' Advent traditions that we are trying to establish
are using the Jesse Tree (placing ornaments on a tree that correspond to
biblical readings outlining salvation history), use of the Advent
wreath (candles and toddlers are an interesting combination), reading
from our Advent story book, playing with the children's nativity set,
St. Nicholas' Feast Day activities, etc. As Monica (and her brother)
get older, it will be fun to dive into these with more depth.
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| Checking out the Reindeer. |
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| Not quite tall enough. Maybe next year. |
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| That's right, pants-less tree decorating. Classy stuff. |
While I was pregnant with Monica, there was a lot of discussion and thought given to whether to believe in Santa or not. Thanks to the wisdom and experience of other friends' families to come before me, my final conclusion is as follows. In families where parents are super concerned about our children knowing the real meaning and importance of Advent and Christmas, they will! Santa/ St. Nicholas are part of the joy and generosity of the season and therefore will be included. We are not going to push believing in Santa, but not discourage it either. That being said, Monica wants nothing to do with him right now.
Monica calls all trees "Christmas Trees" now. Including the palm tree in her Nativity Set.
We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my folks, Uncle and local friends.
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| Monica checking out our first snow. It lasted a day. None since. |
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| In front of the Jesse Tree. |
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| We have/ get to redecorate the bottom half of the tree every couple days. :) |
