Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” the special season where we, as Christians, are anticipating the celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day… and waiting with great hope for His promised second coming. In my 10 Christmases as a mom, teaching my girls the real reason for the season has always been really important to me. I’ve done Advent lots of different ways, but have found that simpler is better for our family in this super busy time of year.

We always read through the Jesus Storybook Bible Advent plan, and this year, we’re displaying our new Crew + Co. Advent cards to direct us to the daily Bible stories. The past two days, on my friend Katie’s suggestion, we’ve also begun listening to this awesome We Wonder contemplative Advent podcast after dinner. Even though it’s targeted to kids, I think my husband and I have enjoyed it even more!

I love creative activities, and this year, I wanted to plan some Advent ornament activities to go with the Jesus Storybook stories we’re reading. Idealistically, I’d love to do them daily, but that just doesn’t match up with the reality of our family’s schedule right now. So, my realistic goal is to make three ornaments a week, for a total of 12 ornaments over the four weeks of Advent. My girls are really into animals, as are most kids, so I had the idea to highlight animals from the Bible stories as a theme for our ornaments…