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Bookswithtea
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I know this is ridiculously early, but I have a baby due the week after Thanksgiving, so I am unapologetic in planning early! I am determined to have more fun this Advent, and more of God as a family, too.
I pulled out Our Year With God, A Year with God, Catholic Traditions in Crafts, the de Paola Unit in Real Learning, Catholic Mosaic and my calendar from Michelle's planner yesterday afternoon, along with some odds and ends/other books I have collected over the years.
We are starting on Advent with making an Advent posterboard calendar which we decorate (we do this every year). Ds is getting my xmas boxes down today from the crawlspace so I can see what I have and what I still need to buy, and I mentioned in another thread here that I bought some neat new crafting stuff 50% off at Hearthsong.
What are you planning?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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Oh! I forgot to ask...any ideas on including a 14 yr old boy who *hates* to craft in all of this? I am sure he's not going to be thrilled to listen to my picture books either, and will only grudgingly listen to Tabitha's Travels (we read one of these every other year so they stay somewhat fresh, but he's already heard the first two at 10 and 12).
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Paula in MN
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I have no ideas yet, but I'd love to see pictures of the Advent calendar you and your children make!
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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onemoretracy
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Our most memorable new tradition from last year was the advent log. Did you see any of the blog posts on that? Several of us tried it after learning of it from Rebecca. I bet your son would enjoy drilling the holes!
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missionfamily
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Fun for us last year was stringing a clothesline across the mantle and hanging 25 little baby socks (I used pink and purple for advent) with mini clothespins. Inside each were two popsicle sticks, one with a question about the liturgical season, the saints of advent, or cultural traditions of the season, the other with a prayer intention for the day. The socks also contained a mini candy cane of lollipop for each child. This year I'm thinking of replacing the candy with miniature items for our prayer altar---like the pieces of the children's nativity and...umm...don't know yet! Maybe little mini-saints...small pinecones and berry branches...things to build a winter scene. Anyway, we all loved this, and it was ready-made evening prayer every night, lighting the wreath, answering the question, praying for the intention. I can't wait to do it again.
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Bookswithtea
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Paula in MN wrote:
| I have no ideas yet, but I'd love to see pictures of the Advent calendar you and your children make! |
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Oh, its nothing fancy. Its a big posterboard. I draw the lines for the right number of weeks/days in pencil. The oldest dd does the numbering and days of the week and marks the Holy Days. All three add stickers, drawings on the edges (we leave about 2 inches on all sides for decorations). We outline each week in either purple or pink and Christmas through the 12 days we trace in glitter glue.
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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onemoretracy wrote:
| Our most memorable new tradition from last year was the advent log. Did you see any of the blog posts on that? Several of us tried it after learning of it from Rebecca. I bet your son would enjoy drilling the holes! |
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Nope...can you link something or point me in the right direction?
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Caroline
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Alice's advent log
Have you been to Mary Ellen's Christmas blog
O Night Divine? There are some great posts from last year.
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Bookswithtea
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Thanks for the link. Rebecca's blog link from Alice's site doesn't work, but it looks pretty. Why so many candles though? Is it supposed to be one a day instead of one a week?
And yes, I have Mary Ellen's blog bookmarked! Its excellent!
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Tami
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Thanks for the link. Rebecca's blog link from Alice's site doesn't work, but it looks pretty. |
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Rebecca took her blogs down, at the end of June. 
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When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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acystay
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I made a file last year for Advent for something we do each day. It includes a song, an ornament to make, a book (most days), verse (most days) or proverb, a possible acitivity, history of the song for the day, and words if needed for the song. I tried to match it to the advent symbols for the Jesse Tree on EWTN, but it got to hectic trying to finish it. I had to keep re-arranging things! I'm hoping this year to have it match. I also got this felt advent tree activity to do with them for this year. If anyone wants a peek at the file, let me know.
Here's what I had for December 10--Bell (make a bell ornament)Read poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" , Make wreath w/ candles for St. Lucia Day tomorrow
Make pastries, and the song was "Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too"
I even download from iTunes songs and made a cd to play these songs to do.
I so miss living in cold weather! I love Advent and Christmas time so much :( Living in SoCal in some ways just doesn't do it for me.
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SuzanneG
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Here is our Advent Log, as a result of Rebecca's post last year. This would be a GREAT project for your son.....my dad enjoyed it anyway! 
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Barb.b
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I forgot to ask...any ideas on including a 14 yr old boy who *hates* to craft in all of this?
How about including your 14 year old as your assistant in leading the others. That way he still hears the message behind the crafts and books with out feeling that he is too old. He can read the book to the younger set, lead an activity . . .
Barb
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Barb.b
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Books: about your 14 year old:
How about including your 14 year old as your assistant in leading the others. That way he still hears the message behind the crafts and books with out feeling that he is too old. He can read the book to the younger set, lead an activity . . .
Barb
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acystay
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Hopefully this works! I did add the file to public domain so you can download it. I have it as microsoft and open office (hubby hates microsoft--he's a linux guy/software geeky type ). The dates will probably change and the activities a bit b/c I'm hoping to match it up with the Jesse Tree a bit better. I'm also looking for more books and things to read. For the ornaments, the children added them to their own little trees I got a michaels so it worked out nicely. When you click on it it goes straight to open or download option.
Advent file.doc
Advent file .odt (open office)
Could someone explain to me the Advent log? I keep looking at Blogs but don't yet get it. What is the center candle for and does it have to be birch?
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Bookswithtea
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Thank you for the file! I saved it to add to my own plans.
I am still trying to figure out the Advent Log too in the absence of Rebecca's blog...the best I can figure is a candle a day instead of one a week with an Advent wreath?
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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SuzanneG
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Is it supposed to be one a day instead of one a week? |
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Yes. We had an Advent Wreath too, that was a table centerpiece, and lit it for dinner and said the prayers. But the log was in the living room in front of the fireplace. We would do our night prayers in the living room, in the dark, lighting the Advent Log candle/s, saying before-bed prayers / Advent prayers.
We LOVE St. Lucy's Day around here! We do the morning tea/coffee cake in bed with the girls dressing as St. Lucy (white dress, red sash, lighted crown), singing the st. Lucy song. Make Lucy cookies during the day, have Swedish food for dinner, and a bonfire at night. DH does a blessing of the eyes.....Bless what they see, purity, etc.
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SuzanneG
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Bookswithtea wrote:
any ideas on including a 14 yr old boy who *hates* to craft in all of this?
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Following up on the bonfire I mentioned above.....since Advent is about LIGHT....I am all about WINTER BONFIRES! Can you put him in charge of building a fire a couple times a week (or on certain feast days) maybe after dinner? Even if you live in the city....a contained fire in a BBQ would suffice.
Nothing like a 14-year-old-boy and a FIRE! He could set it up, build it, get chairs ready / tables, be in charge of finding something hot and unique for everyone to drink, maybe a special treat. He could get Holy Water and be in charge of the littles sprinkling it on the fire, etc. Get a copy of a prayer for everyone to say. Would he read a story out loud? Now, maybe I'm showing my ignorance about 14-year-old-boys 
The kids could show dad what they did during the day, talk about the feast day, etc. all around the fire.
We had a baby on Thanksgiving weekend a couple years ago, and not much Advent stuff happened that year, but dh sure made us get outside for a few fires on the feast days and it was great.
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Ouiz
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We had a lot of fun last year with the Jesse Tree that I made for the kids. Every day we did a reading and the kids got to add one of the "buttons/medallions/whatever you want to call them" to the paper "tree."
I also updated some of our felt ornaments that we put on our Christmas tree, and the kids and I talked about them as we hung them up...
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Topic: Advent Plans?
