Advent Begins!
Prepping for Advent began the weekend before this year:

We dropped off our fully-stuffed Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes on Saturday. Then on Sunday our church sponsored an Advent wreath-making workshop in lieu of Sunday school. We came home with a beautiful wreath decorated in greenery cut from the church grounds. After the worship service, the girls and I stayed to help a few other families put up Christmas decorations around the church. They were so excited to decorate our church's Chrismon tree!

Then on the first Sunday of Advent, we turned up the Christmas tunes and pulled out our own Christmas decorations: two trees (one Chrismon tree and one tree the girls can put anything they want on), candles in windows, white lights on the front stoop, wreathes on doors, garland on the banister, an assortment of other fun decorations, and (at last count) 17 nativity scenes!

The girls have a couple of little Advent calendars going that they brought home from church, and we've begun reading the Jesse Tree Advent devotional. We actually do a Chrismon tree, not a Jesse tree, but the devotional, which follows the story of redemption from creation to the nativity, has been good so far.

Friday night we attended Lion's Christmas piano recital and a Christmas party. There was a good little crowd at the recital, and Lion did a great job! No hesitation, and no mistakes! The party was actually Daddy's office party. Kids weren't invited to the party itself, but childcare was provided. The girls had a blast making crafts and some new friends. At some point after dinner, when the dance floor remained empty of adults, a few families fetched our kids and let them get some wiggles out. They loved it!

We're all looking forward to the many festivities yet to come!