Advent---preparing for Christmas

Christmas Time. What a wonderful time of year! It is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of shopping and baking and trimming the tree that we lose sight of the reason we celebrate in the first place. When our children were small we began several different routines leading up to Christmas, so that we we could really focus on Jesus.

One of those traditions was an Advent Calendar or countdown Calendar. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, but the Calendar here has 25 days and can be arranged with the numbers 1 to 25 following the month of Decmber , or from 25 down to 1 counting down the days. Decide what you want to put inside...for this sample I've printed Bible verses for a daily reading. You could also list special things to do like bake cookies for a shut in, go caroling at the nursing home, or put out the nativity set, one piece at a time on several different days. Depending on the ages of your children, you can adjust these things each year.

So let's get started! Begin with your choice of Mosaic Moments 12x12 grid paper. I used black for high contrast.  Purchase 5 different Christmas scrapbook papers. You may want to use double sided paper for color or pattern inside. For best results pick five colors that co-ordinate well together. From each sheet cut a strip 4.25" wide. Cut each strip into 5- 1-1/8" rectangles. Fold each rectangle in half, decide if you want a top fold or side fold, I've used a top fold. With adhesive on the back, align each square with the guidelines on Mosaic Moments grid paper. I suggest that you use each color once in each row and once in each column for a good balance. See what you find pleasing and put them all in place.

Using the download for numbers in the last post (here) adhere in the order you want.

 Print the verses either by hand or typed in a fancy script to inside, either on the top-side of the flap, leaving the rest of the square for more details or photos, or to be seen as you open it up.

If you'd like to make a scrapbook page out of this take pictures of your activities and make small 2" square photos to place on that days square. (set printer for contact sheet, a 4x6 photo with two columns and two rows will print four photos you can trim to a 2" square)

There are many Advent devotional books available try Christian Book Distributors for seveal selections for all ages. One of our personal favorite series is the trio of books by Arnold Ytreeide.  Stop back later I'll try to share some other ideas for Focusing on Jesus this season with your families.

Thanks for stopping by...

andrea