24 Days to Christmas

Today begins our Advent countdown to Christmas ... each weekday the kids and I work through an Advent study we are doing (this year we are focusing on the symbols of Christmas and how they each point us to Jesus). The study gives us some ideas for crafts, baking, or missionary type opportunities. On Sundays, as a family, we light our Advent wreath candle and my husband leads us in a study.

Today, our lesson was on Advent and the Advent Wreath. We talked about the word Advent's meaning and how we as a family purposely work on keeping our focus on Jesus during the season. One of the primary ways we do this is limiting gifts - we try hard to keep our gift count to just three for each child. It can be so hard for a child to focus on the true meaning of Christmas when during the holiday season they are inundated with gifts from family and friends.

Our activity today was baking Magic Cookie Bars for the Lottie Moon Bake Sale at church. Lexi's GA group sold them during Wednesday night dinner and activities tonight. Here is the cookie and fun packaging we decided on.