The Eli and Abby Show: Advent

Monday, December 20, 2010

Advent

The most important of all of our family's Christmas traditions is our celebration of Advent. For those unfamiliar with Advent, author Lisa Whelchel explains it well: "The word advent means "to come," and it refers to Jesus' coming to earth as a baby on Christmas day. The season of Advent is all about looking forward to celebrating the day when our almighty God stepped into history as a human being." We light candles on an Advent wreath each Sunday of Advent, with the center candle (the Christ candle) being lit on Christmas day to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

For the past three years our Advent celebration has included What God Wants for Christmas, a kid-friendly, interactive nativity with seven gift boxes, a colorful pop-up, and an illustrated poem.

In addition to this, this year we've used a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas. Each link of the chain contains part of the history of Jesus (specifically the people involved in the Christmas story, from Adam and Eve to us), as well as an advent-themed activity. Tonight's activity was drawing a picture of the manger in which baby Jesus was laid. The kids were both excited about the drawing activity.

I love celebrating the real meaning of the season with my family!

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Eli Said...

6/15/10
"I think I already know everything." (Stated very matter-of-factly out of nowhere during dinner!)

6/13/10
"I'm not fantastic, I'm a naughty chihuahua!" (His response to me telling him he's a fantastic boy)

6/7/10
"Superman coming through! Watch out!"

"In your dreams, Mr. Beans!" (Quoting a Skippyjon Jones book...his favorite book series)

4/15/10
Eli (rushing past me): "I'm going to go put shoes on so I don't get pee on my socks!"
Me: "Why would you get pee on your socks?"
Eli (clearly exasperated that I don't understand): "No, I'm getting shoes on so I don't get pee on my socks."
Me (seeing that this line of questioning is going nowhere): "Okay." (I then step back to observe...Eli get his shoes on and rushes past me again, heading outside)
Me: "What are you doing?"
Eli (still exasperated): "Going potty outside where Dada told me I could!"
...Ah, the joys of little boys!

3/14/10
Eli: "Hammer, hammer, hammer..." (Ryan and I realize he is "hammering" Abigail)
Me: "Eli, you don't hammer your sister."
Eli: "But I'm just pretending she's a nail!"

3/5/10
"Mama, I want your arms around me" (I hug him) "Oh, not that tight!"

2/5/10
"Mama, you were wrong a lot of times!" Eli said this laughing after I told him I'd been wrong about where preschool would be meeting.

1/28/10
"When it's my birthday, we should have a 'play trains and relax' party. So make sure and tell my friends that's what it's called so they know to relax and play trains."

1/16/10
Eli: "What is that for?" (Pointing to a candle on the dinner table)
Nana: "It's called atmosphere"
Eli: "No, Nana, it's called light!"

Eli: "Salt, Zoe, salt!
Mama: "Eli, what are doing?"
Eli: "I'm trying to turn Zoe into a pillar of salt!"

11/21/09
"These are called boat shoes because they have boats inside, but I can't feel the boats because they're hiding inside the belcrows [velcro]."

"I will put Abby down for her nap, Mama. You go ahead and play." (He said this very seriously - and gave me a seriously good laugh!)

"Abby has been looking forward to my kiss all day!"

"Hello exciting baby!" (I'm pretty sure he meant "excited" but it's cute either way!)

As we were looking for a missing ball under the couch... "Mama, I can see the ball because my mouth is bigger than your mouth." Don't you just love 3-year-old logic?!

"Mama, I just saw a sign that said we cannot have nap or bed ever again!"