Advent 2013 kick off! Day 1

This is the third year since we began this tradition and Henry has always looked forward to it.  This year, we kept some old favorites and added some new activities.  Since he is now older and wiser (he just turned 5 after all!), we wanted to make sure we included activities that will help him grow and understand the meaning behind all the different activities.

This year, we are taking a break from "Truth in the Tinsel" (probably return to it next year) and we'll be following the advent reading plan from "Jesus Story Bible." We has also decided that he should make a Q&A Christmas Book about the Christmas Story.  Henry loves to tell and make up riddles and jokes about different things, so we figured he might enjoy doing that while reflecting and showing us what he knew and had learned! Henry also got the Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar for his birthday (from Uncle David and Auntie Cathy) so he'll will have his Lego fix. Last but not least, there's the actual activity of the day that he'll get to enjoy, a new one every day.

Day 1-

• Bible Story: The Story and a Song

• Activity: Decorate Christmas Tree and make salt dough ornaments

An annual favorite activity and almost always universally the first thing we do is kick off the advent season by putting up the Christmas tree. Jack loves doing this part and with our skinny tree that we bought 2 years ago and a new tree bag we got at last year's after Christmas sale, the process gets easier and easier. Some branches are starting to break on the tree but are not really noticeable and we put the tree up in record time. Henry was definitely excited to put ornaments on the tree (he had some practice putting Mama's kids' ornaments at Christmas in the Park the day before). He's so much more self sufficient and is able to put the ornaments on without much help or guidance. It was really awesome to see him find the paper ornaments he made last year doing the "Truth in Tinsel" crafts and advent ornament making days, and putting those up. He definitely spent extra time lingering and admiring the work he did in making the ornaments from last year and I can only imagine him reflecting on them more and more as the collection grows. With the tree up, Henry was definitely dazzled by the finished product and was very happy to see the final result. Tree is up! Advent is now on!

Pictures and videos clips from Day 1
http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/cqoTihJy/1/6333015