Vassar's ADVENT Countdown

This is the Vassar Family Advent Countdown Calendar.  I ordered it from etsy, for those crafters out there.  It's a kit that you make yourself...really easy.  I put our Advent ornaments in each little numbered pocket according to the date and we pull one out each night and hang it on our little tree (the same "little tree" from my earlier post).  We read a story from the Jesse Tree advent book first and then find the ornament in the countdown calendar and hang it on the tree.  My kids and I made our Jesse Tree ornaments (suggested in the book we use, The Advent Jesse Tree).  I searched online for clip art images to fit each symbol and printed them out on inkjet "shrinky dink" film.  After coloring them with bright colored sharpie markers and cutting them out (putting a hole in the top first, for a hanging string later), we baked them and had a blast watching them shrink to cute little ornaments!  It was unbelievable how amazing the shrinking process was even after the 24th time!  The kids and I hovered around the oven (safely, of course) to peek at the ornament and "ooo, ahh" every time each ornament curled up and shrank down to it's new "mini" size.  COOL!

Here is why we count down to Christmas each year as a family...If you read my earlier post on our little tree...(cute little tree!), I mentioned the wonderful event of Christ's birth.  I want my family, me included, to understand that advent is a season of anticipation...we relfect on Christ's birth...His coming.  As I think about this season of "coming", I realize that all of life is an advent of sorts.  We are living in anticipation of something.  Sometimes it is the anticipation of just my head hitting the pillow!  But sometimes it is a greater anticipation, sometimes life altering.  Our lives are made of seasons of anticipation.  I don't know what is just around the corner, but Christmas is a wonderful reminder of Christ's future coming.  All striving will cease, the purpose in pain perfected, our sanctification complete, our joy complete! This is our greatest anticipation--it trumps all others and drowns out worry and fear. I challenge all of you out there to live in the advent of his second coming even as we reflect upon the birth of Christ in Bethlehem many years ago.

Posted via email from Ginger Vassar