Advent-Week 1

This year I decided to have an advent calendar for our family. Each day the children would pull out a piece of paper with a scripture and activity on it. In the evenings, our family has been reading Jotham's Journey, a book for advent with a story that is broken down for a little bit to be read each day until Christmas...I would highly recommend this book! We are also reading a Christmas story and watching a Christmas movie each day (we do not normally watch tv around here, so this is a treat...and most of the videos are short.)
For the first day, we made paper chains to help us count down the days till Christmas, and we also made an advent wreath, but I later realized that I switched the colors and we have 3 pink candles and 1 purple candle! I tried to also get part of outside into this picture to show all of our snow! Our scripture was Isaiah 40:1-11.






For the second day, we made stained glass candle holders. Our verse was Isaiah 60:1-2.



For the third day we decorated our tree and home for Christmas. We also went to lunch with some friends with Katelyn's Book-it coupon at Pizza Hut! Our verse was John 1:14.




For the fourth day, we went and bought food and took it over to the Lighthouse Mission (part of Boise Rescue Mission). Our verse was Mark 16:15. This was also Hallie's birthday!

For the fifth day, we did a Christmas puzzle together as a family. We were only able to find one with 550 pieces and so Josh and I were the die-hards, but the kids came and helped throughout the afternoon. This day was also the Christmas program at our church. Brenden was Joseph, Makenna was an angel, and Katelyn participated in the puppet show. I sang in a ladies group and Josh read scripture. Our verse was Matthew 3:13-17.







For the sixth day, we did a craft and made snowmen with stickers. Our verse was 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.






Usually, Hallie is sleeping while we do our activity, but today she was up and playing!

For the seventh day, we read the Legend of the Candy Cane and made candy cane cookies. I also had a Dr. appointment, so Katelyn made a card for Dr. Julie and we took her some cookies for her family.