Prepare

Not only have we been decorating for Christmas, but I am also trying to prepare the house for Advent so that we can prepare ourselves to welcome the Christ Child. I was over at the Loveliness of Advent Fair browsing through all the wonderful ideas there and I happened upon an idea that charmed me. I was so inspired by all of Cheryl's Advent ideas, but really loved her idea for the lighted garland with the word "PREPARE" in it. So today we made a trip to Wal-Mart for various items and I found the perfect letters for the project. So I came home with garland, lights, letters and purple paint. I don't have a dining room spot to display it, so I opted for the wooden shelf over the children's religious bookshelf in the playroom. Here is how ours turned out. I love it!!!! Now if I could just hide the extension cord.



And here is our Advent wreath. We have had the wreath base since our wedding. It was a gift from our sponsor couple. I added the greenery around it many years ago. This year I was finding it a little boring, so I added some inexpensive (97 cents) woodland type Christmas picks, a purple bow and a lovely shimmery lavender placemat underneath. I love the new look!



This year we are also going to try the idea of adding straw to Jesus' manger. For each good deed or act of love and devotion, I will write it down on a purple sheet of paper and then the children can add a piece of straw to the manger of our family Nativity set. We did a similar activity during Lent, except we made a purple paper chain that hung around the kitchen and got longer and longer.



And of course we will be doing our Jesse Tree activity. We have this wonderful book. When Jacob was young we used the poster option. Last year, Nicole wanted to color ornaments too and so we hung them on a small tree we have instead. We will do the same this year. Someday, I would like to make more intricate handmade ornaments, but for now this works well for the little ones - printing on cardstock and coloring.