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Advent

What is the Best Way to Practice Advent?

November 17, 2020 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Christmas

Do you find yourself frazzled in the busyness of December? There are so many extra activities and preparations to be made for Christmas. How can you possibly do one more thing? you may be asking yourself.  Our family has found that practicing Advent is the answer.

Advent is not about doing one more thing. It is not something to be checked off your list. It is about so much more. There has never been a year that we have done our Advent things every single day. It is an invitation to meet Jesus here and now as we anticipate not only Christmas Day but his return to this Earth.

We have found that tying our Advent traditions to habits we have already established we are more capable of accomplishing them. Here is what works for us during this season:

Mornings

Each morning as the kids eat breakfast we sing the Doxology (we do this all year long), then we read the Scripture for the Advent Readings that day, and then before they go to school or work we pray together. This takes less than 10 minutes each morning.

Evenings

After dinner is cleaned up we gather together in the living room, sometimes with a fire lit, sometimes not. Then we light our advent candles, sing 1 song, read aloud a chapter from our Jesse Tree book and then hang up the corresponding ornament. This takes between 20 and 30 minutes depending on how often we have to stop to correct the littles and let’s be honest sometimes the bigger kids too.

Adding Advent to your December days is doable! And so worth it! It can take as little as 10 minutes a day. Some days you have more time and can spend longer but each moment you spend bringing God’s Word before yourself and your children is such a blessing!

You are not behind! Just do what you can and know that each time you spend with your family drawing close to God is an investment that will never return void.

Filed Under: Advent, Blog Tagged With: advent, Christmas, family life, Jesse Tree, Jesus, seasonal living

Our Favorite Christmas Books

December 1, 2019 by mamakay 1 Comment

books

All through the year our family tries to gather together after dinner to read together. We can’t manage it every night but we come back to it time and time again. There is something special about a shared experience reading a book together and it is so simple to make it happen.

Here is a list of our favorite Christmas books with links to Amazon in case you want to add them to your collection too. (I receive a small commission if you buy through my link. Thanks for your support!)

For our Advent readings our 2 favorite books are: 

Our favorite chapter books for reading aloud as a family are:

Our Favorite Picture Christmas Books:

These are wonderful for young children but you might be surprised how much you and your older children will enjoy these beautiful books.

And here is a link to here James Earl Jones read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Tommey to you. It is the best! 

http://www.candlewick.com/Toomey/

I am not a crafty person but I sure love a good book to read as a family. What are your favorite Christmas books?

MamaKay

* This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links it costs you nothing and it helps to support this site.

Filed Under: Advent, Blog, Christmas, Holidays Tagged With: advent, Books, Christmas

It’s that time of year…when we try so hard not to lose our minds

December 18, 2018 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Christmas

Have you heard the song, The Christmas Can-Can by Straight No Chaser? I think it pretty well describes our culture these days leading up to Christmas.

What is Christmas all about? Is it about presents and food and running around like crazy? There are so many concerts, programs, rehersals, parties and extra events. And each event requires us to bring food and presents. It seems like the calendar fills up so quickly.  And all of these things are added to the all of the things that make up our normal lives. The result is tired and cranky kids and mamas.

How can we do this different? How can we give ourselves space during this season? Are there things we can do to alleviate some of the stress that is bound to come our way this time of year?

I would like to propose that you carve a little time out of each of the next 7 days to do something that makes you feel like yourself. That could be making some comforting food, reading a book, going for a walk, really listening to your favorite music while you just sit down for a few minutes.

Our families need us to be our best selves during this season. I want to be able to connect and serve with a loving spirit and not an angry, stressed out heart. How about you? Let’s take a moment to rest and recharge. 15 minutes can make all of the difference!

What makes you feel most like yourself? I’d love to know!

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Filed Under: Advent, Blog, Christmas, Holidays Tagged With: Christmas, selfcare

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So glad you stopped by. I am a Christian wife and mother of 8 in the middle years. My kids are aged 4 to 20 and just about every 2 years in between. I write about our life as a big family, what God is personally doing in my life, food and books.

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