During this time of darkness, Advent is a journey that leads us toward the light. It is a time of peacefulness, and calm, and for our family, a time to share our love and light with others. Our Advent gnome will make his appearance on Sunday morning, bringing with him a little scroll. Reece will no doubt be a little excited, and with anticipation will open the scroll and ask me to read it. I will share the gnomes little message with him, and we will then determine how best to incorporate that wish into our day.
Of course, this is all well planned out by me, but Reece doesn't know that. The first scroll tells us to cut our tree, and decorate it, and to set up our Advent wreath/spiral. Over the coming weeks there are scrolls with activities for us to do...visit the One of A Kind Show, go on a family hike, enjoy dinner with friends, take an evening drive to see the holiday lights. Some scrolls include crafting fun...making wool angels, creating a beeswax star garland, threading button snowflakes, hand stitching sun ornaments for Winter Solstice. Other scrolls invite us to share our light with others...buying food for Christmas hampers, giving a gift to those in need through World Vision, making cookies to share. Each day a scroll for an excited little boy to open as we move through the season.
These are all simple things, yet they are full of love and light, and I think perfect for this quiet season of Advent.
Thanks for sharing your Advent ideas! We, too, our excited to begin this magical time of the year as we move toward Solstice and Christmas -- and a one year birthday for a little brother born-at-home last Christmas Day! Best wishes to you!
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome. How wonderful, not only to be born at home, but also on Christmas day. Best present ever!!!! Isn't home birth amazing?
DeleteThank you, wishing you a wonderful weekend.
What a beautiful Advent tradition. Enjoy every day of it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Emma, we will!
Deleteaw, so sweet. love the idea of teeny gnome scrolls.
ReplyDeletewe'll be doing an advent-TYPE of calendar countdown to the solstice. i bought a non-religious calendar, but next year i plan to have made one myself. i might steal your scroll idea to add some personal messages.
Thanks Monica. And yes, please steal away :) Hope your little one enjoys the little scrolls.
DeleteWonderful Kim! I just finished creating our advent calendar too. I love your gnome idea so sweet.
ReplyDeleteThanks KC. The same gnome has been making an appearance for the last few years, it is a tradition now :)
DeleteLooking forward to seeing your Advent calendar. Hope you guys had a lovely Thanksgiving.
this is so beautiful Kim...you have put so much thought and work into this (and everything you do), and I'm sure Reese is going to love everyday of it. Thank you for sharing !!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Erica, that is so lovely of you to say. If the last few years is any indication, I know he will love it :)
DeleteThis is so similar to what we were planning this year but you've just gone ahead and made it more inspiring. We are building an "experience" based advent calendar, but the idea of putting in charity work, experiences that will build compassion, that is just wonderful! Thank you for taking our idea to the next level. :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy to inspire my friend. xo
DeleteYou are such an inspiration Kim! I was just thinking about something similar for me and my husband (these kind of things are not just for children right??),to share together the path of Advent in a meaningful way.Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAwe, thank you, that is kind of you to say. You are so right, it is important for us adults to find a way to move along the path towards the light in a meaningful way.
DeleteSuch a lovely tradition. I've been thinking a lot about advent and how best to celebrate. I also love how you seem to almost welcome the darkness like it's an old friend. I sense peace and warmth in your writings as you travel through this season towards the light. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Leisa.
DeleteI do welcome the darkness, because without it I wouldn't see the light. I think at times we need to move into the darkness so we can truly appreciate the light, and when we do, we are better able to share it, and spread it to others.
Awesome! LOVE this time of year. Advent and everything about Christmas time! I am enjoying planning our advent too! :)
ReplyDeleteMuch love to you and your family Kim!
Tiffany
Thank you Tiffany. We love this time of year too. Looking forward to seeing what you have planned.
DeleteLove coming right back to you my friend. xo
Beautiful tradition, especially with the added gnome touch! I'm sure Reece will love the activities for each day.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sally.
Deletei am in love with your advent tradition! thank you for sharing and inspiring :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Jenny.
DeleteYou've put so much thought into this time of the year. I love your mindfulness of each day!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It is one of my favourite times of the year :)
DeleteOh what a wonderful tradition!! So very special!
ReplyDeleteThanks Summer. xo
DeleteHow delightful! Enjoy the adventtime!
ReplyDeleteThanks Karin-Ida, we most definitely will :)
DeleteI love the sweet anticipation of Advent!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is wonderful.
DeleteKim, what a wonderful idea! We have quite a bit built up around Advent in our home, but I've always wanted to do some sort of daily gift opening. Except we don't need anymore stuff in our house! This is such a wonderful alternative and I am yet again so happy yo have found your blog. (Lu and I even just started infusing olive oil for our first ever batch of salve!)
ReplyDeleteNow the question will be if I can implement something like this in our house in the next 24 hours! Well if not, then next year!
Thank you Coco, so happy to hear you like it. Like you, we didn't need more stuff when we started this tradition two years ago, and this seemed to fit perfectly with our desire to keep things simple, but fun. Reece loves it, and it adds a special touch to the season without going overboard.
DeleteYay for infusing, you will be whipping up salves in no time.
There is always next year, but I bet you could do it. You could actually do it nightly, as the gnome only delivers one scroll a day :) But if not, you are right, there is always next year.
PS I am happy you found me too. I feel like we are kindred spirits :)
Deletexo
Me too!
DeleteAnd we have made it work, so far, doing it nightly as you mentioned. We called up the higher authority of the "House Elves" in our home a few years ago. It really helps with both bringing magic to festivals (they are often the bringing of little gifts) and also for moments of loving discipline (like gentle reminders that we don't steal things from our friends at school and bring them home to hide under the bed!) So, the House Elves are bringing our scroll everyday. This will work so well for us as there is always so much to do in preparation for Christmas and I have struggled how to include the children up until now. I'm thinking of basing each week within the minerals, plants, animals, and humans. So, collecting crystals for the wreath was today. Third week will be hanging new bird feeders. Again, thanks so much. This is a wonderful gift for us!
That is so wonderful to hear. That is wonderful, the House Elves sound like some pretty cool elves :)
DeleteGreat idea to mix in some activities with the verse. We use the verse for a nightly lighting of our Advent wreath, and add elements to the wreath and nature table throughout the weeks.
It is my pleasure my friend, so happy you liked the idea and have made it work for your family. That makes me smile. xo
Beautiful. I look forward to watching these unfold. xo
ReplyDeleteThanks Julie, I will try and share some of our days throughout the month so you can get a little peek :)
DeleteOh I love this idea!!! That is amazing, we may to add this to our traidition it's incredibke!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it! It is fun, and Reece was so excited to see the Advent gnome this morning :) Always happy to share :)
DeleteI just hung our advent owls up today!! I only have the first few days planned, but I do have a list of ideas for the month. Such a fun tradition!
ReplyDeleteI remember your owls. Bet your kiddos were excited!
DeleteLove this! Since last year, we have created a new Advent tradition; instead of buying things and offering small surprises to the kids only, we've created a paper Advent calendar made of origami boxes and each one of us is responsible for making a little surprise for one of the others, each day. Today I had a clementine with I love you written on it by my daughter, so sweet! As you say, I find it important to keep old traditions and adapt them to what sounds right to us.
ReplyDeleteWIshing you a happy day!
Thank you! That is so sweet, and what a lovely idea. Love the origami boxes, very cool!
DeleteHope you had a happy day too!
Such a great list of activities, dear friend! Next year I need to make a master list for sure! xo
ReplyDeleteThanks Shel, we are enjoying out Advent activities so far, and there is still so much more to come. The master list is great, really helps keep me on track :)
DeleteThis is so simple, sweet, and exactly what I wish I would have thought of before I purchased a $30 canvas with pockets that counts down the days till Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this.
I know I'm a year late to see but glad I can still view this post!
Thanks for stopping by Crystal, and glad you like the Advent gnome. He has made an appearance this year too, you can see the post here http://www.motheringwithmindfulness.com/2015/12/the-advent-gnome.html
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