This year, our family is going to take advantage of our Homely Hours preparation and posts from the last two years. Here is how that will look:

• Jesus Tree Ornament. 

Bley designed these beautiful ornaments (pictured above) several years ago.  I printed them out last year in card stock, hole punched the top and added red yarn to hang on our Christmas tree. We’ll do this as part of our family’s little evening prayer time. Additionally, we’ll use our church’s Advent Wreath prayers at dinner time.

• St. Nicholas Day

We may use Bley’s adorable St. Nicholas Day Treat Bags. We’ll see if I can get that together. But I do plan to buy my girls Christmas shoes and fill them with the traditional gifts: gold chocolate coins I snagged at Trader Joe’s, a candy cane, and a clementine. I’ll probably buy The Baker’s Dozen to read and, I’ll definitely print out Michelle’s Advent Saints Coloring Pages.

• St. Lucy

In addition to those coloring pages, last year I printed out two copies of the St. Lucy Crown Printable. I may even remember to buy wheat to plant on St. Lucy’s Day (though I won’t feel guilty if I forget). We’ll color Michelle’s St. Lucy and watch youtube videos of St. Lucy day in Sweden.

• Life of Mary Coloring Pages

I love these Life of Mary coloring pages from Michelle Abernathy Art.

• Great O Antiphon Ornaments

These ornaments that Bley made from her “Great O” Antiphon series are just beautiful.

Personally, I am going to read through the Advent devotional Watch for the Light again. And, I am going to try to make our menu more “Lent-ish” so that The Twelve Days can be even more special. I also want to memorize T.S. Eliot’s The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.

You may have noticed that we are not posting very frequently on here anymore. We view this site more as a repository rather than something to continually update. But, I hope that this post may help you take advantage of the resources we’ve put together.

What is your favorite Advent observance?