Advent Traditions

Kids love routine. The need structure.  They adore traditions.  But as the one in charge of the schedule, I feel like Sisyphus who was condemned to roll the boulder up the hill for eternity.  Maintaining order gives me such pleasure. But...what? I'm supposed to maintain order day after day?  I don't think so. Instead of continually pushing that boulder, I've chosen to just step aside and let the stone roll down the hill.

Ok, so I'm horrible at daily routines.  Can you really expect me to do the same thing 365 times in a row? I won't expect myself to do that.  However, Christmas is different.  It's only 24 days (and I still can't be consistent!).

We have a few simple traditions that I keep for our advent season.  Most important is the chocolate advent calendar.  Chocolate.  See why I keep this one going? I never forget to pull out the chocolate every day. Yum, yum.

Chocolate Advent: best invention

Chocolate comes after we've read the day's Advent devotional.  After the reading, the children take turns putting an ornament that correlates with the story onto a table sized Christmas tree.

Lastly, we have Christmas books wrapped under the tree.  One book is chosen and unwrapped each time we gather to read.  Throughout the year, I'd like to find more and better books to add to our new and sparse collection of seasonal books.

Three simple traditions that I don't have to maintain for 12 months.  In fact, I often miss days even though Advent lasts only 24 days.  But who cares?  If three days are missed, we all get to eat 4 chocolate squares to catch up.  That's my kind of tradition!