Advent in 2 Minutes

Advent begins this Sunday!  Time to start getting things ready.

Happy St Nicholas Day!

All powerful God,
you made St. Nicholas a bishop and leader of the church
to inspire your people with his teaching and example.
May we give fitting honor to his memory
and always have the assistance of his prayers.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever—and ever. Amen.


The kids and I are celebrating the day with hot cocoa, speculaas cookies, special books, and the Veggie Tales story of the saint.  When they wake up from naps later, daddy will be home and there will be special treats tucked in their stockings!

Our Jesse Tree - Revisited

Things have been really busy here lately (hence the absence of posts,) but I did manage to put together a new plan for our Jesse Tree this year.

Last year we simply used our regular sized tree, strung it with purple lights, and hung our ornaments on it each night.  It was simple... in theory.  In actuality, the kids took down the ornaments over, and over, and over.  Every day.  I also noticed that since all the ornaments were the same size and shape with the same background color, they were too similar for any of them to be eye catching.  So my plans for this year were to address those two problems. 

I started by making a tree out of stiffened felt, using hot glue to attach the pieces together.  It's approximately 3 feet tall and will be hung on our oversized bulliten board in the playroom ... out of reach of tiny hands.

Next came the ornaments.  I couldn't use the same ones as last year so I set about looking for a new (printable) set.  I found some gorgeous printouts at Catholic Artworks, (though they don't seem to be offering free downloads anymore, you can still purchase a full set.)  I was able to download about 14 ornaments from their site, each with a front and back image and brief description.  I still had several days to fill in so I made some of my own ornaments simply using pictures from Google images and adding the reading at the bottom.  I also knew I wanted to have ornaments for the O Antiphons, but since I couldn't find anything ready to print, I designed some dual sided ones using these beautiful images.

I printed all the ornaments in color, laminated them, and used a hole punch at the top to be able to hang them.  (I will use rounded push pins on the felt tree but could easily pull some ribbon through if I wanted to hang them on a real tree.)

I snapped this image as I was making sure all of the ornaments would fit, making last minute adjustments to the tree pieces before gluing anything.  It's from my phone's camera so the quality isn't very good, but you can get the idea.  The star on top has the Chi Rho symbol in it, making it the final ornament hung on Christmas Day. 

I love that this layout will allow for easier viewing of all the ornaments.

JESSE TREE SCRIPTURES AND ORNAMENTS

December 1 ~ Creation: Gen. 1:1-31; 2:1-4 Symbol: earth
December 2 ~ Adam and Eve: Gen. 2:7-9, 18-24
December 3 ~ Fall of Man: Gen. 3:1-7 and 23-24 Symbol: apple
December 4 ~ Noah: Gen. 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17, 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22
December 5 ~ Abraham: Gen. 12:1-3
December 6 ~ Isaac: Gen. 22:1-14
December 7 ~ Jacob: Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15
December 8 ~ Joseph: Gen. 37:23-28; 45:3-15
December 9 ~ Moses: Ex. 2:1-10
December 10 ~ Samuel: 1 Sam. 3:1-18 Symbol: lamp
December 11~ Jesse: 1 Sam. 16:1-13
December 12 ~ David: 1 Sam. 17:12-51
December 13 ~ Solomon: 1 Kings 3:5-14, 16-28 Symbol: scales of justice
December 14 ~ Joseph: Matt. 1:18-25
December 15 ~ Mary: Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38
December 16 ~ John the Baptist: Mark 1:1-8 Symbol: shell with water
December 17 ~ O Sapientia : O Wisdom
December 18 ~ O Adonai : O Lord
December 19 ~ O Radix Jesse : O Root of Jesse
December 20 ~ O Clavis David : O Key of David
December 21 ~ O Oriens : O Rising Dawn
December 22 ~ O Rex Gentium : O King of Nations
December 23 ~ O Emmanuel : O God-With-Us
December 24 ~ The Birth of Jesus (infant Jesus)…Luke 2:1-20
December 25 ~ Christ Our Lord (Chi Rho star)…John 1:1-18

A Reminder

Take some time, remember what Advent is about.

St Nicholas Day

Today... was a great day. (Unfortunately, our camera is dead so we had to make do with a phone camera, and all the pictures turned out blurry.)

We spent yesterday talking about St Nicholas, reading a book about him and trying to prep them for today. We hung their stockings and they seemed excited by their "big socks." This morning the kids came downstairs to advent music playing, stuffed stockings, and a lit tree with a special new ornament.
"Teh-yee Berrs!" (teddy bears) was the first exclamation of the morning. (They were really stuffed reindeer with tiny bags of mini candy canes but, close enough.) We said a prayer and then took their stockings down for them to go through. Aside from the stuffed animal they each got a clear bouncy ball with glitter in it, a mini board book and a little chocolate santa. The santas were eaten as soon as they heard they were "Chock-et!"
While they sucked on their santas we read The Saint Who Became Santa Claus.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast and later the kids helped to make Speculatius (German spice cookies.) I didn't have a special cookie cutter or the time to decorate them so we just made circles and they turned out well. Next time I might add a bit more cloves, I like them spicy.

We had a great time finding ways to make this day special (As the kids get older we hope to add a tradition of helping out at a local soup kitchen) and are looking forward to our kids growing up celebrating this great saint.

Beginning New Traditions

It's been a busy week. I have been working on finishing up several projects and haven't had much extra time left at the end of the day, but it's been worth it. Some of these I completed just in time for Advent. I know I had said that I wasn't going to add much to our Advent and Christmas traditions this year, but I changed my mind. If I waited until I was able to do everything just the way I want it then it would be years before my ideas came to life.
I was fortunate to happen upon a site that has printable Jesse Tree ornaments with corresponding reflections and bible passages to read each night. I printed all 28 ornaments and had my mom laminate them for me. I punched a hole in the top of each ornament, threaded some thin purple ribbon through and secured with hot glue. Done! Now all I needed was a special way to keep these items together.
As I was browsing the shelves at Michaels I saw some small wooden, hinged boxes for $3. I picked one out along with two shades of purple acrylic paint, some foam paint brushes and a spray-on sealer. I took the hinges and closures off, applied two coats of paint in each color, allowed them to dry, then used the sealer. The whole process only took one evening.

Now I have a beautiful box which holds the ornament and reading for the day along with two Hershey Kisses for the kids to enjoy. It's worked out quite well.

I don't have the extra room for a separate tree so we put up our beautiful 7.5 foot pre-lit tree and strung it with purple lights. (We'll keep the white lights off until Christmas day and put up our family ornaments on Christmas Eve.)

Each night we all come and sit by the tree with the box and our Bible. One of the kids "hangs" the ornament and then Steve reads the reflection while I help the kids with their chocolate. Then we open the Bible and read the passages while the kids wander the room. (I'm not going to push them to sit still, as long as they're quiet and in the room, I'm happy.)

I keep the box and the Bible on our mantle as the centerpiece of the decoration. I reused my glass vases from fall by surrounding glittery, snow-covered twigs with small purple and silver ball ornaments then wrapping a wide purple ribbon around the top.

Between these vases and the box stand two 8x10 frames with an image of St. Nicholas and a beautiful representation of the Jesse Tree.

My sister referred me to a wonderful blog where I saw this great idea for O Antiphon ornaments. There are several ways to incorporate the O Antiphons into your family traditions with ornaments, houses or wreaths. Perhaps if I find some more time I may try my hand at putting something together. If not, there's always next year. I am pleased with what we have put together for this year though, and am excited to be celebrating this season with my family.

Preparing For Advent

Did you know that Advent begins next Sunday? This is my favorite season in the Church's calendar; the time to reflect on the history of God's people, prepare with joy for His coming at Bethlehem, and look forward to when He will come again. There are many books, activities and prayers available not only for children but for adults looking to celebrate, learn, pray and enjoy this wonderful time.

I recently found a post by Karen Edminsten, The No-Panic Advent Series. In it she has combined all her posts about advent, making it a one-stop-shop, so to speak, of all her ideas for making this season special. She covers so many great topics; The Jesus Stocking, December Feast Days, The Jesse Tree, balancing secularity with Christian heritage, simple traditions (advent wreaths and calendars, prayers and books), Santa, last minute checklists, and the Twelve Days. It's a very long post but is simply a gold mine of tips, links and ideas.

I have posted before about wanting to start some traditions for this time with my family. The Jesse Tree is top on my list but I have come across so many more wonderful ideas, it's almost a little overwhelming. Taking the advice of more seasoned mothers though, I have started a folder compiling ideas, activities, and websites full of prayers and meditations. There is no way I can do everything in one year, nor should I try, and this will allow me to hold on to these ideas for future years. We'll try more ideas as the years go on and hold on to those that are most meaningful for our family.

As time is in short supply this year I think the only new addition to our calendar will be the celebration of St Nicholas Day. We will make and hang stockings on the 5th (St Nicholas Day Eve) and read his story. The next day they will find a few fun trinkets, fruit or candy in them. We'll read some more, bake some Speculaas cookies, say some prayers and enjoy a special dinner.

What special traditions do you have for this season?