The Season of Advent Begins

It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend here! Mine has been filled with family, food, laughter, games, shopping, and more food. We enjoyed time with both of our families this holiday and that has been so nice.

Today was also a great day with our spiritual family at our church. It was wonderful to worship with fellow believers and to hear a message of hope.

Tonight our family enjoyed sitting around our kitchen table and lighting the first candle on our Advent wreath~which represents hope, by the way. I always love this special time of the year when we begin the special family devotions of Advent.

I just wanted to share with your some of our favorite resources.

For several years now we have enjoyed reading through The Advent Book each night in December as we count down to Christmas Day.

We also love the Jesse Tree devotionals by Ann Voskamp. You can click here to download them for free.

This year we are also using some notes and Scripture readings put together by Focus on the Family to go along with our Advent wreath. Also, from Focus on the Family this month is a great Adventures in Odyssey Advent Activity Calendar that my kids are excited about. If you don't already receive the {free} magazine, you can download a free copy of the activity calendar here.

I also enjoy getting fun ideas for this season from several books and one of my favorites is The ADVENTure of Christmas.

May you have a blessed first week of Advent!

*****
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