Raising Young Ones: Wise Men ADVENTures

Monday, December 9, 2013

Signs of Advent

We are now in our second week of Advent and are in the midst of this beautiful time of preparation for the birth of Christ. Here is a peek into our home and all the "signs of Advent"....

Our Advent wreath

(I love how it takes votives, which are so easy to find, and I can easily change out the scents. I found the above link on amazon, but bought ours from our local Religious Supply company many years ago)

THE song

We sing this every time we light our wreath.

(thanks to Elizabeth Foss for sharing it years ago)

Our Jesse Tree and new ornaments

Advent devotionals

Tabitha's Travels and Welcome Baby Jesus

(we have also used Jotham's Journey and Destination: Bethlehem in the past. Both are wonderful - we just like to switch things up a bit.)

Advent Lego calendar

(there are so many to choose from!)

Baby Jesus missing from our Nativity sets

(one is the Playmobil set and the other is an Isabel Bloom. My wonderful husband gave me once piece each year for until I had the whole Isabel Bloom set! I treasure this set!!)

Wise Men ADVENTures (a Christ-centered alternative to Elf on the Shelf)

We have passed on the ever-so-popular Elf on the Shelf tradition because we just wanted something "more" that actually tied into our faith. I'm glad we held off and never jumped on that bandwagon, because there is an option that relates to our faith - The 3 Wise Men searching for Jesus! Yippeee!!

And, it's easy peasy too! Every night after kids are in bed, the 3 Wise Men come to life and move around the house in search of the Newborn King. So far, they are still searching and having no luck, but we know why - it's not Epiphany yet! Plus the manger where Jesus will lay is still empty, since we are waiting for His arrival still. The excitement and anticipation is just contagious!!

Here are some pictures and details of our Wise Men ADVENTures so far...

Our "3 amigos" (aka: 3 wise men) were hard to spot the first morning among all our wooden saints. They must have noticed the Light of Christ burning so brightly in their new friends and that's what led them there. We could almost hear them asking, "Have you seen a star?", "Where is the new king?"

The 3 kings are still searching for the King and the star. Don't think they will find anything in there - lol! Max was fascinated and just sat and sat and sat and sat multiple times throughout the day and kept telling me, "Mom, I see them moving!!"

The wise men must have been paying attention and noticed that we were watching our Jesse Tree Bible stories last night on our "idiot box", so after we went to bed, they wanted hints in finding Jesus and tried to make it turn on and work. I think they got a bit distracted. What do you think??