Family Advent Nights

We have the plague here at the Compton house. Boo. Okay, not really the plague . . . being dramatic. Just one kiddo down so far. Gram and Bampa kept our kids over night on Sunday night so Eric and I could stay the night in Portland. Marshall woke up at their house Monday morning with a fever. Poor Marshall. I can't remember the last time that he was really sick, and this definitely ruined the fun Monday he had planned with his grandparents.

This morning finds he and his sister on the couch watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yes. The old school one. From the 1970s. Marshall and Eliza love it. Jameson is, well, being Jameson. Playing with trucks and trains. And hysterically loving the orange Oompa Loompas.

While the troops are occupied, instead of folding laundry, I thought I'd share a Christmas idea with you. I have Christmas on the brain. I found the Sirius/XM Christmas music stations and already preset them in my car. My Pinterest Christmas board is filling up. I have more Christmas crafts than I can count planned for the next month.

And . . . Advent is starting soon, December 2nd to be exact. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Advent season, advent means "coming." During Advent, we celebrate the "coming" of Jesus. It is a season of waiting and preparation for celebrating Jesus' birth at Christmas.

For the first few years that we had kids, we wanted to do more during Advent to focus on Jesus. Eric and I just weren't sure what to do, or how to do it. Then Eric started receiving weekly emails from Todd Wilson at Familyman Ministries. Through Familyman, Eric found what we'd been needing. Todd Wilson wrote a blogpost last year describing their family's Family Advent Nights, and we started following their model last year. I say, "we." I should really say "Eric," since this was all planned and initiated by him.

So, I thought I'd write a similar blogpost on our blog this year, in case any of you were needing ideas for Advent. Because sometimes you come across something so good, that you just can't keep it to yourself! And, it's okay as I copy as long as I give credit, right?  (Familyman didn't pay me or give me anything free - I really just think you all need to know about this!)

At our house, we have Family Advent Night every Sunday night during the Advent season. But, you could pick any night of the week that fits in your family's schedule. Family Advent Night consists of the Bible, an Advent wreath, a snack, a craft and a read-aloud storybook.

We use the following Bible passages from the Familyman blog to read each week. Each passage correlates with one of the advent wreath candles. We light one candle the first week. Two candles the second week. Three candles the third week, etc.

• Week 1 – Prophecy candle (Isaiah 9:1-7)
• Week 2 – Bethlehem candle (Luke 1:1-56)
• Week 3 – Angel candle (Micah 5:2 & Luke 2:2-5)
• Week 4 – Shepherd candle ( Luke 2:8-20)
• Christmas Eve – Christ candle (John 1:1-18)

The Familyman website has amazing Christmas storybooks to read-aloud each week of Advent. Eric ordered the books, not sure what to expect. The books ended up being one of the best parts of our Christmas season last year. They are creative, beautiful and point to the Gospel.  We can't wait to read them again. This year, they've added books on CD. So, after each Family Advent Night, we are going to give the corresponding book on CD to the kids so they can listen to it for the rest of the season. 

The other, and maybe best thing, about the Familyman website is that they sell craft kits. They are inexpensive - about $2 per kit. So, $8 per child for the season. The only thing that you need to add is glue. They are really simple, which is perfect for including pre-school age kids and for their non-craft-inclined moms (like me!). And they make planning Advent night easy and a lot less overwhelming! 

The only thing I had to do was put together an advent wreath, prepare snacks each week, and buy some glue.  And really, we discovered our kids didn't care about the details of what we did. They just loved that it was Christmas-y and that our family was together talking about Jesus. Eliza says that it was her favorite part of Christmas last year. See how easy it can be? So, let's get planning mamas! 

New Favorite Christmas Recipes (for next year or maybe just for anytime I get the urge to make them)

I am officially in sugar-detox mode here. I didn't even get a caramel macchiato at the Bux this morning. Gasp. Just a plain old americano. Let's just not talk about those three milk bordeauxs I ate out of the See's Candies box this morning. Mmm'kay? It's not my fault anyway - Eric got me an entire box full of just milk bordeauxs for Christmas. I have no choice but to eat them before they get stale. So, they don't count in my sugar detox this week. That's right - I will probably eat the entire box of chocolate this week. Just to get them out of the house. We'll just call it sugar detox (except for See's Candies) week. 

As long as we are on the topic of sugar, I have three new recipes that I'm going to file away for next year. (I love to say "file away" because it makes me sound like I am really organized with a filing system. But don't you worry Dad ... I'm just as disorganized as ever). One of the recipes I found on a fave food blog called Our Best Bites and it's for Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies. The only change I am making for next year is I'm going to try using a box brownie mix for the base layer. I just cannot get from-scratch brownies to come out quite right - at least not the edges. The middle of the pan was super fudge-y but the edges were way too dry. Oh, I also chose to add an extra half-batch of the chocolate glaze to the top of the brownies. Because why would you want to skimp on a layer of chocolate?

Darn! There went the sugar detox . . . a few bites of those peppermint brownies ended up in my mouth while I was setting up that picture. But, bites don't count right? Just whole brownies. And, they weren't whole . . . nope, just, oh, 20 little (really tiny) bites.

The other two recipes are both for Oreo cookie balls. Yummy, yummy Oreo cookie balls. I will also confess to eating a lot of these too, since I discovered them on Christmas Day. My amazing dessert-maker-mother-in-law, Robyn, made them. I cannot even describe how delicious these little balls of heaven are. She sent a lot of them home with us too. Yes, they are already gone. They didn't stand a chance around here.

There are Peppermint Oreo Cookie Balls. Robyn's only change to the recipe was to use the Oreos that have the green mint filling rather than the original variety.  They look like this:

If you're not super fond of peppermint, there are also Snowman Cookie Balls.  And, these you can turn into adorable little snowmen, if you are so inclined.  See . . .

(I had to use the stock photos from the Kraft website because mine are all gone.  Oops! But, the ones Robyn made did turn out just like these.)

So - y'all just go file these fab ideas away for next year.  Or go right ahead and make them tomorrow, or in the middle of summer.  Because they are just that good.  (Oh!!  And, maybe I was the last one to figure this out, but you can now buy crushed candy canes at the store or on Amazon.  I'll miss taking a plastic bag of candy canes into the garage and pounding the heck out of it with a hammer.) Happy sugar high!