Advent

On Friday, I conscientiously objected to Mt. Laundry in favor of enjoying this view:

I love Christmas and Christmas decorations, but I'm finding it hard to stop and enjoy - to really anticipate the celebration of Jesus' birth.  Usually my brain is so full of my to do list that there's no room for reflection.  

However, I'm trying.  I'm imperfect and we miss days, but here's what we are doing for advent:

Advent calendar.  Yeah, the candy kind.  In years past, I bought the one Starbucks sold.  But $30 is a bit pricey for what boils down to 24 pieces of chocolate.  Enter Aldi:

Boom.  A dollar a piece - both CC and Henry have one so they don't argue over who's turn it is.

As far as something more Jesus centered, we printed out some Advent bible verses to put on a mini tree:

So we read the day's verse at breakfast usually and then put it on the tree -- veeeerry simple, this is what I can manage in the current season of my life.

We are also doing an reading plan for the Jesus Syorybook bible

...taken straight from homewiththeboys.net. Again, we miss days, but we are trying to point out hearts toward the best Gift and not just to the ones under the tree -- if there were any under there (I haven't wrapped yet).

Do you have Advent traditions?