Advent 2011
December 1, 2011
An idea has been percolating since June to use the story stones idea for advent.
Since fixating on the idea I have been noticing stones and rocks everywhere.
handpainted beach pebble winter tree by natasha newton
Word Stones- Support Theme: Support, Hope, Strive, Motivate, Encourage & definition.
hand painted rock house primitive style by The Owl Shop.
Painted stones by Geninne.
So many beautiful ideas….
So, yes, while children all over the world are getting chocolates and goodies in their advent calendars… ours will be getting stones. So if you know us personally, and my children tell you they are getting rocks instead of chocolates….. please ….
- don’t call DOC’s….
- feel sorry for them
- assume they have misbehaved
- but…. ask them about it!
We have been brutally realistic about how often we will actually sit down and ‘open the box’. The number we arrived at was about 3 times a week.
Love it, Ally! Can’t wait to see your photos. Might incorporate that activity into our lives somewhere too.
I’ve got out kids decorating envelopes, which are then blu-tacked onto the wall. Just a Bible reading inside (the 6 year old’s job). No chocolates at this stage. Will probably borrow a lot of your activities from your previous calendars. Making it more relational and outward focused, hopefully.
And yes, we also have developed a policy of opening a few at a time. A lot of the time, the content is more cohesive that way too.
Love ya’s. xx
Sounds so good – can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Cathy,
The envelopes sounds like a fabulous and simple idea! Love It.
Relational and outward focus sounds fantastic too.
On the opening a few at a time…. I have had a number of conversations surrounding the whole advent thing, that range from guilt through to hopelessness and onto to comparison.
Even though last year we didn’t do it everyday…. I think it came across on the blog like we did.
December is busy! December is at the most tired time of the year (for lots of us), and lots of things ramp up. Trying to achieve the ‘perfect’ advent experience on top of this can ….well…. be all very disappointing.
Hope your calendar brings joy and laugher and learning….. yours too Cath.
Ally
[...] I mentioned in the original post, advent activities and reading does not always run smoothly .We had one family member melt down [...]