Adventageous
We go to a pretty non-liturgical church, but the appeal of seasonality in faith is pretty hard to resist, and after several good years with Lent-like observations before Easter we're dipping our toes into Advent-analogues. It's great!
signs of the season
Advent is an awesome thing to do at home with your kids, because who doesn't like counting down to Christmas?! It doesn't have to be complicated: you can slip all sorts of spiritual content in there without the kids thinking it's too heavy. Our Advent calendar is just a (totally amazing) felt-board Bible story, and the kids are thrilled every morning to pull out a piece and hear the story—even without chocolate!
It's nice at church too (even if we can't do the really good Advent hymns...). This year Leah is upping the excitement level by running a "Pop-Up Cafe" to serve coffee drinks and homemade baked goods. Harvey was proudly involved in all aspects of the first day of operation, from planning to counting the money. Lijah... didn't really help.
dealing the treats
I plan to make a pecan pie for this Sunday.
Of course, being a non-liturgical church we don't really get the whole point of Advent. In the marketing material our "Light in the Darkness" Sundays are referred to as "the Christmas season", and there's no way we can resist societal pressure to decorate early. Not to say it's not pretty!
well, close enough
We're holding out against the pressure here at home, despite frequent expressions of curiosity from the boys about the timing of our procuring a tree. All their friends' trees are already up! When their complaints get too desperate we'll distract them with the Advent calendar... only four more days until they get to take out the owl!