Advent This Year

Well, here are some details of what we are doing for Advent this year. This picture is the liturgical calendar I just love!

Preface: I grew up knowing nothing about Advent, all about Santa. When our boys were about 8 and 5 I converted and we began learning more about the liturgical year.. and the preparing. It is not a race- not for comparison- but to slowly add some traditions in. Very slowly. No pressure. No pressure. No pressure and I mean that. :)

Since my boys are older I feel I want to bring a few more traditions in before they are off to their own homes. Also, I have time to read and research a bit.

Up till now we have already started some traditions:

-At the beginnning of Advent we bring out the creche, sans Baby Jesus. He appears Christmas morning. We have 2 Advent wreaths, one on the kitchen table, one on the dining room table. We say prayers before lighting the candles.

-We have eased up each year on decorating, but it is still part of our memories and tradition, so dh has agreed to wait until one week before Christmas.

-Our neighborhood does luminaries on Christmas Eve, so we do that.

-Our Christmas cards are always of religious themes.

-We still do presents on Christmas morning and leave cookies out for "Santa" but it is with tounge in cheek!

I would love to get to where all of Advent is preparing and all of Christmas is celebrating, but my family is not quite there yet. So I thought this year I would add a few more Advent traditions to make it more special (though it is waiting), and lessen a bit the big Christmas morning splash. This year for the first year ever, we will be driving to relatives on Christmas Day. Humm. Not what we prefer. But it helps us see that Christmas is not just Dec. 25 and we will open one gift that morning, then have another celebration with my ext'd family, then another celebration with my immediate family when we return.

Ok... back to Advent!

We are just doing some simple things. I had to *see* Advent, so drew a calendar:

After seeing the days, and looking through books I cut copies and cut out some items and put them in my sketch book. I am not usually this organized, but this year, I found myself with time, so enjoyed it. Don't know if you can read it, but will put the pictures up as I go through.


I decided we would celebrate St. Nicholas with leaving our shoes out (boys should roll their eyes at this one) and read about how Santa came to be from the original St. Nick. I found some things about how he evolved in the US and in other countries. The boys know a bit about it, but though we could fill in.
I have a small collection of Santas so thought we could pull those out and decorate the house with them on that day, too. (I even have a stuffed dog dressed as Santa-- a favorite that will go nicely on this day!)

In their shoes they will find chocolate (a treat here), a bit of coinage, and something religious- perhaps a Steve Ray dvd?




On Dec 8 is the Immaculate Conception, something we have never celebrated before. We are trying as a family to learn more about holy days of obligation. I read up on this a bit and found a neat idea. Celebrate mothers. Make it a mini-mother's day! And this book suggested that many times mom is the one who does all the Christmas cards. That is true here, though I enjoy it. But the suggestion is to have everyone help mom, and make sure to have cards with Mary and Baby Jesus on them. So I did. There are also some CCC readings that relate. And we will- maybe. We will see. This is all sketched out and we will go with the flow!

Oh, our Christmas cards were also purchased from Birthright so support unborn babes.

On December 17-24th, we will read the Oh Antiphons aloud. I also found a beautiful book, Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Pope John Paul II (compiled by John Kruse) that we can read aloud daily.

Oh, and I loved this. When I set up the creche, only Mary and Joseph will be there. But during Advent, other will slowly 'show up'.... hee hee.. a sheep, a cow, a shepherd.. all gathering awaiting the Christ child. And then on Christmas, Jesus will appear, and the wise men will appear, but at the other end of the house! Through Christmas they will slowly make their way to the creche to arrive right on time. We will see if I remember to do this. lol

As my boys are older, we are past a lot of the crafts, etc we used to do. But we will probably bake some cookies and go look at the local garish Christmas lights with hot cocoa. We always watch the weather reports for the VERY coldest day, as it can get tepid here in Houston.

That is about it.. I think it is enough. Just to start some memories.

Oh, while I had my camera out, I took some other pictures of fall around the house. I enjoy seeing pictures of others' homes.. so here is a peek into mine.
Seasons changing Thanksgiving next week... Advent coming...