Advent - Preparing Our Hearts

We are now in the Advent season and I am always looking for something to make it more meaningful for our family. A time to reflect and prepare our hearts rather than get caught up in all the craziness that seems to come with the Christmas season. I want our children to truely know what we are celebrating at Christmas. And so I was thrilled to find two books that we will use this year. We have gone through the Jotham's Journey series in the past and I highly recommend them but being that we finished the third book last year it was time for something new.

The first book I found was written by a homeschooler. It is called Countdown to Christmas by Amy Puetz which has family friendly classic stories and activities for each day of December until Christmas Day. Being that I procrastinated, I haven't received the book yet but hopefully tomorrow. You can view a sample chapter online.

The second one is a free downloadable printable book from Ann Voskamp, a gifted writer who always points the way to the cross through her words. This is so easy to go through and we began last night. I went walking through our fields in search of red dogwood branches to use for our Jesse tree and there are printable ornaments at the back of the book. I love the symbolism and the visual of the tree for the children to see our family history -- God's family. I am so excited to have this resource!

[caption id="attachment_782556" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seppy put our first ornament on our Jesse Tree"][/caption]

What will you do to prepare your heart?