How Our Family Celebrates Advent

Ornaments

Prepare

Today, my wonderful wife, Kathleen, is guest-posting over at Bonnie Engstrom’s blog. She highlights several of our family’s Advent traditions including our Advent candles and Jesse tree:

If you have ever been 37 weeks pregnant, you know the excited anticipation that comes with knowing a baby is on the way, a baby who can be born at any moment. You count down the days, wondering if today might be the day. The anticipation throughout Advent is somewhat dampened because we all know the ending (and when it will happen.) We celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, year after year. So, I wondered, how can we revive that?

After my oldest son’s first Christmas, feeling so overwhelmed with all the busyness of the season—going from here to there, decorating, all the gift-giving—I felt the need to just stop and enjoy the quiet anticipation of Advent. Around that same time, I came across a tradition where some families do not put up a Christmas tree or decorate until Christmas Eve. At first, this seemed odd. Wouldn’t “procrastinating” to put up the Christmas decorations make everything even more hurried and rushed?

Read the rest here.

 

Ornaments
Our awesome home-made Jesse tree.