Thanksgiving and Advent

This Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving I have spent away from family.   I was in the hospital recovering from my reverse ostomy surgery.   Thankfully, the children spent time at their sister's home with the Rutherfords, and were well taken care of while Rusty and I stayed at the hospital.    Fortunately, Cindy brought in leftovers for Rusty while I continued on a teaspoon of ice per hour that day.   Yet, I was so thankful to be on the other side of this cancer journey and on the way to recovery.   Now, I am home and this is our first "real" full day back in school.     I wanted to share some things we are doing.    For years, we have done "Family Celebrations" which we will continue this year in the evening.  I had thrown the worn out book two years ago thinking I'd pick up before last year to find out it was no longer being sold.   I found some used copies on Amazon or ebay last year and bought a copy for myself and my daughter to use with her family.  We usually do that in the evening before bed times.  Rusty created the whole felt tree and the ornaments when Cindy was young and we have used it over the years.

In the morning devotionals in December I believe we will do Anne Voskamp's Jesse Tree from her site that you can get to here.  I also ran across a site for advent wreath that you could could use by clicking the button below.



Also, we usually learn hymns after Bible time in the morning so of course we will be learning and singing great Christmas hymns in December.

This weekend the little ones and I are going to make a countdown to Christmas craft that I got from Sheri Graham's site "Homeschool Freebie of the Day."   You can see this craft by clicking here. 

We will also work on our speaking or presentation skills by the children taking turns each day reading John Piper's advent book which you can find for yourself here. 

We will also do lots of crafts and baking along with school this month.   We usually make lots of gifts in jars to give away to guests and family.   Praise found a great pinterest idea that I cannot post in case my family reads this and knows what we are up to for simple family gifts that we want to make.  On my calendar today, I plan to write in days to make goodies for our neighbors, our post office workers, and the fire/police station that is less than a mile away.   Otherwise, I may just travel that road of good intentions.  

So, that's what things are looking like in the Tordoff home.  My Aunt Joan, Fran & Mike left back home the beginning of the week after staying a few days to help the children out with the painting projects around the house, and meals while I was recovering.  Thanks again for all the prayers and support.   Looking forward to all the Lord has for us this coming season.   May we all live expectant lives seeking our Savior Jesus, and that our excitement for the things of God reaches far past the Christmas season because He is the God of every season, day, and moment.

"To prepare our hearts for Christmas, 

we must cultivate the spirit of expectancy."
[Handel H. Brown]