02 December 2014

People, Look East

I'm so sorry for disappearing there for a whole 2+ weeks... We've been traveling, and I don't like telling the internet when we are away from home because who knows who might find out and decide to take advantage of an empty house, you know? But we're home now, and I'll have stories and photos from our wonderful trip soon. Today, though, because my brain is all fuzzy from flying and not sleeping and trying to adjust to the four-timezone shift, I'm just going to throw out a handful of Advent links.

Four weeks until Christmas, y'all! Advent is definitely one of my favorite liturgical seasons. What are your favorite resources or traditions for the Advent season?

Some new finds and old favorites:

AdventReflections.com – FREE daily Advent reflections emailed to you from Fr. Robert Barron, available in English or Spanish.

Magnificat Advent Companion – I loved going through this last year, and am definitely looking forward to using it again! Scripture readings, prayers, and meditations for each day of Advent. The print edition is sold out, unfortunately, but e-editions are available for Kindle, Nook, or Kobo for 99 cents, or on the iOS App Store for $1.99.

Prepare Him Room: Advent Family Devotions – Amy Welborn's new devotional booklet, available for Kindle for just 99 cents. (You don't have to have a Kindle to read Kindle books; there's a free app you can download to your phone/tablet/computer.) It looks like a print edition was also put out by Creative Communications, but in my admittedly brief perusal I couldn't find a way to buy one; perhaps they're only available in bulk to parishes?

Our Favorite Family Read-Alouds for Advent – Kendra at Catholic All Year has a great list of picture books and short chapter books that kids and parents will both enjoy as we prepare for Christmas.

Melissa & Doug Nativity Set – I've been looking for a kid-safe nativity set that wouldn't completely break the bank since Little Bear's first Advent, and just hadn't been satisfied with the more cartoon-ified versions I'd seen so far. I had no idea Melissa & Doug made one, but we discovered this at a toy store in Matt's parents' town last week, and I was so happy! Little Bear still spends more time taking the roof off than anything else, but he did sit through the nativity story last night and seemed to understand which people in the book corresponded to the wooden people I kept pointing to... we still have a few weeks for him to figure it out.


1 comment:

  1. I was wondering where you had gone! Thanks for the Advent links :-) I'm stocking up on Advent resources so Joey and I can start building our own traditions.

    We should chat soon and catch up with each other! I just realized how long it's been since we last spoke. Miss you!

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