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getting ready

remember our advent socks?  well, we have maintained them as an annual advent tradition for 5 years now, and they continue to bring great joy and excitement to the children for our advent journey.  some of the socks (we look inside one each day) have little gifts, but most of them are activities that we do together as a family.  some of them are new each year, and others are ones that we have repeated each year.  one that falls into that category is making a christmas design on the lite brite.  so here you can see Caedmon's star:
 

and here is jackson's santa hat:


and here is shannon's design, using these really cool vintage lite brite letters that our friend Mary gave us (thank you!)


in case you couldn't tell, we love Christmas at our house.  i love the magic and wonder of it all, and it is beyond joy for me to see my children experience that wonder and joy for themselves.  their excitement each day to see what is in the advent sock makes all the effort it takes completely worth it. 

how about you?  are you finding joy in all the little places of december so far this year?  have you seen the lite of Christ's anticipated arrival, the yearning of a world that is war-weary and broken into a million colored pieces?  have you taken the time to get ready, to pull the new adventure out of each day, and wait expectantly for the Hope of the world? 

i pray you have.  i want you to sing joy to the world with me on Christmas eve.  but i want you to recognize why it is such joy.  i want you to sing with me, not because that's what we do every year, but because you really do see that the world is shrouded in darkness, and you really do believe that one little baby to one little family in one little town in one little point in history can be the thing that changes everything, the thing that brings hope and causes us to sing.  will you sing with me?  will you get ready with me? 
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Comments

Emoly said…
I like Crafty P's idea for the Advent socks (and have no idea why I didn't remember it the first time I read it in 2007)! And I like the idea of doing activities instead of just having gifts inside them. Maybe one day I'll be motivated enough to try this (although without children it will be less exciting, just like a lite-bright).
2:11 PM
Cmilinovich said…
I would love to see the looks on their faces! Christmas is a wonderful,exciting time. I love it more each year! Merry Christmas!
3:42 PM
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