Celebrating Advent. (Part 1)

One of the many take-aways from my Wednesday morning women's bible study recently was an in-depth look at the advent season and how to bring it into our home during the month of December.  Perhaps it is the teacher in me, but I was so eager to get started and get the kids involved.  I found myself thinking up ideas to incorporate each of the weekly themes into fun and meaningful activities for the kiddos...

So here's what we've done so far...

Week 1:  (Sunday after Thanksgiving)

• We lit our first candle (I know...it's traditionally an advent wreath but I didn't have one so this will do for now) and discussion the anticipation of Jesus' birth.  
• Our scripture was Isaiah 9:2-6 with our focus being on verse 6, "For to us a child is born, for us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
• I brought to the table just the stable from our nicer nativity set and left it empty for the entire week as we continued our chats during dinner time about the coming of Jesus' birth and the excitement that brings.
• Other activities we did:  
• Reading the above scripture from The Message
• I hid other names for Jesus (Emmanuel, Lamb of God, King of Kings, etc.) around the room on pieces of different colored paper for the kids to find.
• We sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
• I wrote verse 6 on several pieces of paper and Lucas unscrambled it.