December is a month full of traditions and memories. In our family, we celebrate Advent, which starts on a Sunday four weeks before Christmas. What excitement for the kids as they go to church and see the first advent candle lit. They know that Christmas is coming soon. At home, we daily light our family Advent wreath while we are doing our devotions.
Each morning to begin school, we take our usual worship time and make it a time of Advent preparation. We light the Advent wreath, one new candle each week. Then we sing an Advent hymn out of our hymnal. I like to go over the words and phrases of the hymns with my kids to make sure they understand the meaning of each hymn. Then we say our prayers. The last part is a very special book called The Advent Book.
The Advent Book was given to us in December of 2003 by a wonderful friend. Since that time, not an Advent season has gone by that we have not used this wonderful, memory making resource. The book is a thick, hardcover book with very sturdy pages. Each page is beautifully decorated with a scene of a door. The doors are all different, some red, some wooden, some single, some double, some that look like castle doors. Behind each door is a wonderful picture and words of the Christmas story.
I love the way the entire Christmas story is told, with no embellishment. The illustrations are stunning. After 9 years of using this book, my kids look forward to a certain door because the picture behind that door is so beautiful. It has truly become a wonderful Advent tradition. I am thinking I should order four of these books to save for when my children grow up, get married and have families of their own to carry the tradition on.
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