Katie has had some neat ideas for our first Advent together, and I wanted to share some of them with you:

First, she decorated the outside of our home quite nicely.

Then she asked me to make an Advent Log that she had read about. Since I had just “felled” the scraggly bushes that stood outside our home, I used one of the longest trunks and bore holes into it for Katie to stick candles into, one for each day of Advent. At night we light the number of candles for the day and sing the first verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (we only have the first verse memorized–maybe next year we will memorize another one!).

Finally, we have our Advent wreath, made from a neat wooden bowl that Katie bought and some juniper tree cuttings:

I also constructed four tables that Katie bought, so now we have end tables to put the living room lamps on and have a table for our family’s altar!

Blessings to you all this second week of Advent!