His Treasure Seekers

 Daily Theme:Creation

Books:

Christmas Angels by Crystal Bowman (for Arianna)

What Nick and Holly Found in Grandpa’s Attic by Melody Carlson (for Ian)

Along with Ian’s book, which talks about 12 important aspects of Jesus, I included the box of “Adorenaments” a friend gave us last year.  He had never seen them, but he loves going through our Resurrection Eggs with the book Benjamin’s Box (by the same author) every year at Easter, so I knew he would enjoy going through this story and pulling out the ornament that goes along with the picture at the top of each page.  After we read through the book, I had him go through all the ornaments again, telling me what they meant.  I liked that the book discussed less common names for Jesus, like “Bright and Morning Star,” and “The Door.”

In the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge from Proverbial Homemaker we read about Creation and Elijah got to hang our ornament.

Then the boys tried to build the earth while we read from Jotham’s Journey, which the whole family is enjoying.  (Well, Ian tried to make the earth, including the core and mantle.  Elijah went straight to the “extra challenge” and made a landscape, which ended up being a garden with a maze.)

   To close our evening, Elijah prayed for us and we all sang three verses of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  We’ve been talking a lot about Jesus as the Light this week, so we included my favorite verse:

O Come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

The boys have pretty much memorized the first two verses and sing through them with enthusiasm, and even Arianna has caught on to the refrain and loves to sing along with us.  It’s such a sweet way to end our days, gathered close together as a family to read the lyrics, singing a song with such a rich history.  I hope our children grow up thinking of Advent as a wondrous, enchanting time of considering the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation as a family.