Advent Season

It is Christmas time in the Mosier house!  Our tree is up and Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God album is on repeat.  Oh how I love this time of year! It's so fun seeing it all through the excitement of a little child.  Cade is mesmerized by all things Christmas.  My sister came over last week and he took her on a tour of our Christmas decorations explaining them all to her.  It is so sweet to see his true wonder and excitement over Jesus' birthday.

Our heart for this season is that we would truly reflect and celebrate the birth of our Savior!  Christmas can sometimes get lost in all the to do lists, gift giving and commercialization. That is not the reason we celebrate!  Ann Voskamp said it so well on her blog a few days ago, "Whenever Christmas begins to burden, it’s a sign that I’ve taken on something of the world and not of Christ. Any weight in Christmas has to be of this world."

This was before we put up our big tree, he was so excited and thought this is what we were using for our tree.

Here are some of the ways we are celebrating and pointing our hearts and minds towards Christ this year...

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
This is a great resource!  Nancy Guthrie compiled 22 sermons and writings regarding advent. They include works of Luther, Augustine, Piper, Sproul and others.  It's a great daily reading for this season.  I highly recommend it!

Little People Nativity/Jesus Storybook Bible
These 2 are must haves if you have little ones in your family.  Our Little People nativity is well loved and played with all through the season.  It's great for my boys to have hands on access to a nativity that does not include my Willow Tree set:)  You just never know where Baby Jesus might turn up around here...
Every night we have a time of family worship where we light the advent candles, sing a few Christmas songs and read the Christmas story.  We add more of the story each night, repeating the previous readings.   The repetition is great for Cade. We then pray over a family who we chose out of our Christmas card box. I love this special time of worship with our little family.

The Village Advent study
This is a great weekly guide that Matt and I are doing together

Unwrap a book a day

I originally got this idea last year from some friends in College Station and this year its all over Pinterest.  I wrapped 24 books ( we will unwrap the Bible on Christmas Day) and but them in a box under the tree.  Each day we open one and read it together.  Most of them I am checking out from the library but I'm slowly adding to our collection.  Some of my favorites that we own are...

 

Toliet Paper Roll Advent calendar

We count down the days til Christmas by removing a roll a day.  Inside each roll is slip of paper with a fun outing, craft or surprise.  Some activities include going to look at Christmas lights, making a gingerbread nativity, snow paint, Christmas movie watching, new Christmas pajamas etc. 

First Christmas Pajamas

If this isn't real life I'm not sure what is...

Even Pico is excited about Christmas