Monday, December 3, 2012

The First Day of Advent

For the first time ever, I actually had my Advent wreath out on time!  And I already had the candles, which I purchased last year in a stroke of foresight.  And we actually remembered to light them, and even said some prayers.  Our track record with Advent devotions has been pretty awful in the past, so we'll see how long this actually keeps up.

We kept it simple, especially since we have an easily distracted toddler.  We basically just asked God to help us have a holy Advent, and prepare our hearts for Christ.  And then we sang the first verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.  Well, actually, I sang it.  Tom claimed he didn't know the words (how is this possible?!).

Sly was really excited when I told him we had a new toy he could play with.  It's the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set.  I bought it a few months ago from someone on Craigslist (man, I was so thinking ahead this year!).



But pretty much all he did with it the whole time was make the various animals' sounds, and stick each of them in the "barn" (or - in the case of the camel - on top of it, in the angel's spot).  But I also pulled out our stack of Christmas books.  So as we refresh him on the Nativity story (which, really, how well could he have understood last Christmas anyways?), maybe he'll start playing with the human figures as well.



I pulled out the empty manger too.  If I didn't tell you what that thing was, you probably wouldn't have guessed.  That's what I don't like about it.  It really needs some hay or straw....but where can I get that?? I've heard the tip of just going out and cutting a handful of dead grass.  That would work for a small Nativity scene, but this is a life-size one.  They'll have to be pretty long pieces, so they don't fall through the enormous gaps.

I think I owe the long span between Thanksgiving and Advent this year for the fact that I've actually been on the ball with this stuff.  Ooh, darn - I just remembered that we also have an Advent calendar.  I'll have to go hunt that out later.

7 comments:

  1. Love that nativity set. I bought that one for my oldest daughter 10 years ago and it's been played with so much since then. It's the perfect nativity to have when you have little ones in the house. My middle daughter used to insist on having Mary drive around in a minivan with baby Jesus tucked in the back for several years. Now our youngest is enjoying scattering the figures all over the dining room.

    We have one of those mangers with the baby Jesus statue and I usually put a folded plain white cloth diaper/burp cloth in the bottom and then my girls get to put yellow scraps of paper in the manger for doing good deeds in order to make a nice soft bed for baby Jesus on Christmas morning. Maybe you could do that and let Sly put in a piece of yellow paper every time he does what he is told or is sweet to his baby sister.

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    1. Yes, I was hoping to teach Sly to add a piece when he does something good. A white cloth and paper "straw" - that's so simple! That's for the great tip!

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  2. Ha ha you're doing sooo much better than me:) I didn't even OWN an Advent wreath until this Saturday!
    Love the Fisher Price Nativity set!

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  3. Have you ever looked at the family resources on catholicculture.org? They have many different examples of home advent wreath prayers. That's where we got the idea of using the Collect of the day as we light the candle. If you have a daily missal at home (and I know you do) it's easy to turn to the right page.

    They also have ideas and texts for hymns. It's a great resource.

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    1. I had never heard of that site, but I was just checking it out, and it looks AWESOME. It is such a trove of information if you want to observe the liturgical year! Thanks :-)

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  4. you should show us the life-size baby jesus that goes in the manager! also, something i've been being to ask for a while: what is the story behind stella's {very pretty!} name? i remember sly's name has a really neat family tradition behind it, so i was just wondering how y'all settled on stella!

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    1. Oh - it's a Marian title. Thanks for asking...I've been wanting to write a little more about it at some point...maybe I will soon.

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