Advent Week 1: Hope

I decided to start a new tradition with the girls. This year we are observing the 4 weeks of Advent. So far, Kylee seems really into it. She is VERY interested in/curious about all things God related (side effect of going to a Church based preschool). We were late getting started. So, our first "week" was a little short. Here is what we did:

Day1: We talked about the meaning of Christmas (everything from Santa Claus to baby Jesus). We read What is Christmas  (a very simple, short book that mentions various secular Christmas traditions as well as the birth of Jesus) and The Christmas Story  (the Little Golden Book version of the biblical story). We also talked about the meaning of the word "Advent". We counted the days until Christmas and talked about a few of the many fun things we have planned between now and then.

Day2: We put our first purple candle (symbolizing hope) on our advent wreath. Since real Advent wreaths can get pricey and real candles are too hot for little hands to touch but a little too pretty for little hands to resist, I went with a felt wreath with velcro on candles this year. :) I explained that "to hope" means "to wish" and that "to have hope" means "to believe that something good is going to happen." I know that's a gross oversimplification of the word, but hope is hard concept to relate to little ones. I will expand and refine our definitions as the girls get older. I asked the girls to tell me their wishes. Kylee said
"My wish is for Rocky that Rocky will smile, and my wish is for Gracie that Gracie will get a new soft bed, and I have a wish for me that Santa will bring me Barbies."  Makenna said "Giraffe!"

Day 3:  We talked about the fact that God gives us hope and that he has a plan for us. We watched "Its a Meaningful Life" (Veggietales version of "It's a Wonderful Life").The movie ends with the scripture from Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Since this day was Dec 1, we also started our Advent countdown calendar. Each day Kylee gets to remove a teeny tiny book from calendar and help me count how many days we have left until Christmas. At first the girls had a hard time understanding why they could only get down one book, but they've done really well with it the past few days.

Day 4: I took the girls to see Santa. Kylee was very excited about seeing him this year. Makenna was (surprisingly) a pretty good sport about it.  Pictures to come. :)
I asked Kylee if she could think of a way that we could help give hope to other kids. I was very impressed by her answer! She said that we could give them books about God. She actually got very excited about the idea and stated that she wanted to do that for the kids in our neighborhood. That was a much better idea than anything I could think of, so we headed to the Dollar Tree and picked up some books. It was dark (and frigid cold) by the time we got home. So, we are saving them to give to the neighborhood kids when deliver stockings to our neighbors next week.