This year, I haven't posted any of the things that we do during December to prepare for Christmas because I posted most of it last year. So, I'll direct you to those posts instead. We are on our third year of eating rice and beans for advent. It's just such a tangible way for our entire family to sacrifice something in order to have more to give. The kids are able to be involved and they really get what it is we're doing. They are again choosing items this year from the World Vision Christmas catalog that they want to give. They take this very seriously and put a lot of thought into exactly what they want to buy with the money we are saving by eating only rice and beans for dinner each night.
This is the advent wreath that Jay made for me last year.
We did our annual St. Nicholas Day festivities with friends, but, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from it. As I've mentioned before, Santa is not a part of our Christmas celebration. Our kids know that St. Nicholas was a real person who loved Jesus and gave generously, but that Santa Claus is not. You can read more about it here, but basically, we do not want Christ to be replaced by the jolly man in red. We want Jesus to be the reason we celebrate and the reason our kids are excited at Christmas time - because of the ultimate gift of Jesus, not because Santa is going to show up and leave presents under the tree.
Some of the other things we do during advent to attempt to focus our attention on Christ are posted here.
And, here are just a few pictures of our tree decorating night from a couple of weeks ago...
For some reason, Jay has loved doing this little balancing act with each of our children as soon as they can start to hold their heads up on their own.
Jake decided to write a birthday card to Jesus to wish Him a happy 2011th birthday.
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