It came as quite a shock a few days ago to realize that when November is over...Advent begins! This is Jun's 4th Advent. I have been sadly remiss in doing much of ANYTHING for any of her 4 Advents! One year a student in Japan gave us a chocolate Advent Calendar from Germany. We happily ate that away. That's about it.
To be fair to myself, HA!, I wasn't raised with an Advent tradition. It wasn't until I joined a Presbyterian Church in So. Cal that I ever celebrated Advent. So, you know, I'm still kind of new to it all. But, I like the possibilities that an Advent tradition provides, to keep one's head slightly above all the commercialism of US's Christmas. Or, to be more accurate, one's CHILD'S head above all the commercialism.
That being said, and all the Advent ideas I've read, been impressed with, and failed to try out, I am going to give it the old college try again this year. At least through the letter "H".
This is not a particularly religious Advent idea I have. However, we will surely supplement with lots of Bible Stories and singing of Christmas carols, so... Here it is through the letter "H." If I get my act together and actually finish through "H" before Christmas, I'll let you know. Also, feel free to share any "post H" ideas you might have that are very very SIMPLE!
A - Make an origami Angel (perhaps it will end up on the top of our tree? Now to figure out where to find a tree. A tree stand. Lights. UGH!!! RCSSSSSS!)
B - Find Bethlehem. We will do a very basic geography lesson on Google Maps to find the current day Bethlehem. Surely it hasn't moved all THAT far in the last 2,000+ years!
C - we are going to take crayons and white candles and make a gorgeous candle that we just might remember to light on Advent Sundays!
D - Oops, forgot I haven't figured "D" out yet either.
E - Make eggnog. I don't think Jun's ever had this! Ours will be non-alcoholic. Maybe I will chicken out and buy fake or pasteurized or whatever eggs so we don't have to think of food poisoning. (How Japanese people live so long with their eggs unrefrigerated at the store and eaten raw over rice every morning, and American kids can't eat cookie dough or drink eggnog, is beyond me! Anyone care to comment?)
F - Make fudge for Daddy. Daddy is already begging for this, so...maybe we will do our ABC's out of order.
G - Bake gingerbread men (and women!) Do I have a cookie cutter for this? Good question! Better check!
H - Hang lights in windows. Better buy said lights first. And figure out how to hang them at the windows. Duct tape wouldn't be very pretty, I don't think!
And that's as good as it gets so far through "H." I tried to think of things that I'd like to do as that gives us a better chance of getting them done! It would be nice to insert some kind of "give a toy to Toys for Tots" and visit the Senior Center for lunch (from our Meals on Wheels Days), and take cookies to the neighbors, and...we'll see!
Thankful: For the beautiful snow. Thankful that God loves us humans even when we are narrow minded, easily disappointed, and disheartened. And I'm not talking about you guys!!!
4 comments:
I really like your advent ideas. D for deck the halls- go out and find spruce branches and holly for the dining table? The girls and I do a non-religious advent (countdown to Christmas?) by sticking a sticker (bauble) on a picture of a Christmas tree with pre-printed numbers. Last year we made an origami ornament each day but it got a bit out of hand and kind of drowned the poor tree.... i look forward to following your advent adventure!
Hey- get google earth on your computer and "fly" from Vale to Bethlehem. It's very cool. I think you can slow it down, too. It's worth a try!
Have fun with it all.
PS- you should write on your blog every day in December, too. I miss you when you don't write! REALLY!
Ohh! D! Donkey!! RIDE ON A DONKEY like Mary did! :)
Sounds like a fun idea. I'm usually much more on top of Advent...but being still HERE....we'll see. LOL
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