We’re ready for advent in the Smith household…and just in time…because it starts tomorrow on December 2nd! I really wanted advent to be a meaningful period of time for myself and my family so I searched and thought for a long time about how to observe it, and activities we could do with a toddler to teach him and prepare him for Christmas. On the other hand…the holidays are already such a busy time, and I did not just want to fill our days with more “stuff” to do. It is a hard balance!
This year, we’ll be doing a Jesse Tree. I prepared all of the ornaments today while Elias was napping. They are set next to our bare Jesse Tree awaiting use. Each day, Elias will color one ornament and add it to the tree. We’ll have a story from scripture to read that goes along with it. I’m excited to do this too, even though it’s geared toward children. I’ve never done a Jesse Tree before and I think we’ll all be able to learn a little from it.
I also have filled the advent calendar I made for Elias. Each day of advent has a pocket, and I’ve filled it with a chocolate and a card. The card tells Elias something we’ll do to observe advent that day. I’ve put in a lot of work ahead of time so that our advent will hopefully be fun, focused, and meaningful. We’ll see how it goes!
Elias’ advent calendar ready to go!
An example of what is in each pocket.