Preparing Our Hearts

Last year the little Thanksgiving surprise that was Clara put me a little behind on my projects so I didn't finish sewing the advent calendar until after Christmas. This year, I was excited to be able to use it. I wanted something that had activities and devotionals with it, so it ended up being a combination advent calendar and Jesse Tree. Each square (we will always do 25 for design reasons, though I like the idea of actually doing the entire advent season) has a reusable component that has a scripture reading and prayer from creation to the birth of Jesus. There are also round ornaments in each square that come out to mark the day. They have activities written on the back of what each day's advent activity is. I am overall pleased with how this went this year and feel it can grow with the kids. It was hard to think of 25 advent activities. That will be easier in future years when they can do more stuff. Next year we may tweak a few things, but I think we'll stick with this way of going through advent for the foreseeable future. One thing I found is it is hard to find some of the scripture references in toddler Bibles so I want to be more on top of finding the Bible stories ahead of time and having everything prepared.