This year a friend and I decided we wanted to do some things for our kids, helping them celebrate the season of advent. We are far away from our families and churches and don't have any way for our kids to experience get-togethers and services, so we planned some things ourselves. We invited a few other families and we planned two different Sunday mornings to have an Advent fair.

The first Sunday we had the kids sing some Christmas songs, led by me on the guitar! We had them make paper chains marking down the days till Christmas, talked about and made star ornaments, and did a craft with cotton balls and sheep pictures. They also got to play with special play-dough that was cinnamon scented, especially made by my friend Sonja!

Last Sunday we met again. It was only two families this time, so it was a little less formal. We still sang some songs with the kids, read them the Christmas story and had them color cards. The cards turned out a little differently than we expected so, instead we just hung them on the wall! We had lunch together and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus as we ate his birthday cake afterwards. It was such a fun day for the kids and a special day for us parents to remember!

Here is the picture of Reese sitting with her friends Nehemiah and Evangeline next to our homemade Christmas tree, proudly showing off their "cards" on the wall.