Advent

In case you haven't realized.... it's the Christmas Season! Around our house, our favorite tradition this time of year is our Advent Calendar. You can click HERE to remind yourself of my feelings about this time of year... I hate to repeat myself:) HA! Our calendar is up again (Ben was a little worried it might not be making it's appearance this year!) and I even made one for Eli (speaking of which, if any of the parents of our OTHER nieces or nephews would like to participate, I'd be happy to create one for your family, as well... but it might not get to you for THIS season) so he can start to experience the fun! Our hearts are already filled with anticipation, whether it's for extra time spent on family activities or just for slowing down, we are getting ready!

Last year, while we were driving to Michigan, I read this book out loud to Ryan...

.... it's just a Random book (yeah, right) I had come across on Amazon.com... I had meant to read it sooner in the month, but never got the time until we were locked in the car for 24 hours. It was really meaningful to us, and we decided to read it again THIS year with the kids... it is set up with a reading for every day, morning and evening for the month of December. Here's a brief quote from the introduction:

In our culture we are easily distracted from the celebration's true purpose. Too many of us know that the Christmas season can quickly disintegrate into a time of stress, greed, busyness, competition, and emotional overload. To guard against the danger of overlaying the holy with the mundane, I offer you this little book. I invite you to begin each day of this Advent season not with to do lists and shopping lists, but with your heart anchored on the one Gift, who left His throne from which he heard the continual cry of "Holy, holy, holy" to take on a man's frame and hear instead "Crucify Him!"

I don't know about you, but we come dangerously close to getting lost in the mundane... hopefully we will be successful this year in savoring. Our Pastor's are at it again with some AWESOME sermon's on Advent... and you can now listen to them online! Love that. And seriously, Lou delivered a great one last Sunday to kick it all off and really explained what Advent is all about... even if you just listen to the beginning, you can get a greater understanding. www.tampacovenantchurch.org and click on the "sermons" link and you will be hooked up... oh, and also for your listening pleasure is the sermon on forgiveness, (9/13/09) in case you are interested:) I was certainly interested!

All that to say, YESTERDAY we kicked off our Advent calendar with making ornaments for our tree, and to share with friends... Ben's creation was just too cute not to share:

A few months ago they had taken pictures of their webkins to make scrapbooks with, and this little beagle picture was left over so he put it in his frame... super cute!

Today they got to have a Super Mario's Smash Brothers Tournament on the Wii with their Dad... they don't get to play during the week, so they were pretty excited about that! I'm pretty sure Dad is winning, however! I'm hearing lots of giggles which is a pretty sweet sound!

Ok... that is how December has started out for us! More fun to follow.... THAT will give you something to look forward to, RIGHT?!!

Adding in some Quotes before deleting from the sidebar:

"I'm going to leave a note for the Tooth Fairy and tell her it's my birthday and just see what happens"
~ Clever Carly (Hey Sweet Cheeks... I think the Tooth Fairy is WELL AWARE of when your Birthday is...)

(our car alarm went off when the kids were trying to get into it...)
"Dad, you need to get the car fixed, it keeps thinking that we are thieves trying to break in!"
~ Ben... of course