New Beginnings w/ Advent...or Where to find an Advent wreath?!

Better late than never.  A Dozen for Delight #1: Begin Anew with Advent.  Hi to any SH parents who may be reading and looking for ideas to live Advent as a family.  I've been wanting to post on Advent all week.  It is here and began last Sunday, Thanksgiving weekend.  After a fun Thanksgiving w/ family and a good Saturday working around the house, the kids and I had a quiet Sunday pulling out our Nativities and making our Advent wreath.  I keep my decorating to a minimum until the 3rd Sun of Advent when we usually put up our Christmas tree and the other typical red/green decorations. 

Until then, we have several Nativities throughout the house (the kids have fun choosing which ones they want in their room each year), including the big one that goes on our family altar, again without Jesus until Christmas or the 3 Kings until Feast of the Epiphany.  (The kids also have fun moving the 3 Kings around the house each Sunday on their "journey" to the Christ Child.)

I cut evergreen branches from a bush we have in our backyard and put them throughout the house w/ a lot of our sacred art, including here on the nature side of our family altar.   I also used it to make our Advent wreath this year.

For anyone just beginning to use an Advent wreath, it's a  simple, beautiful symbol of the waiting of Advent.  We light one new candle each Sunday, also lighting the candle(s) of the previous week(s).  The pink candle is the one for the third Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, which marks the halfway point.  Liturgically, pink is seen as a joyful color and we use it to say "We're almost there.  He's almost here!"  Until this year, I've always used a metal wreath that uses taper-style candles but mine has gotten covered w/ wax.  Lots of different Advent wreaths can be purchased here, from Autom.

We had a lot of fun crafting the week before Thanksgiving.  The kids made the figure of Isaiah above and another of Micah below, as well as the Angel Gabriel & Mary and, at the bottom w/ Mary, Elizabeth.  We'll use these on the Sundays- first two of the prophecies of Christ's birth (Isaiah 9:1 & Micah 5:2), then the stories of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) and Visitation (Luke 1: 39-45), in that order.  Each night during the week, we light the week's candle(s), repeat that Sunday's wreath scriptures, and sing the refrain of "O Come Emmanuel," with the lights out.  The darkness really gets Mark's attention and he is usually (same as mentioned above) very interested.  This is a modified Catechesis of the Good Shepard approach to celebrating Advent with children found in a little book called "Home Catechesis" that I found from this family business: Our Father's House,  although I could not find it just now!?  This could be a fun Sunday craft to go along w/ reading the prophecies or narratives from Scripture.  It's never too late to start, especially this year since Advent's first Sunday fell so close to Thanksgiving and many families were probably still traveling.

I finally worked on our Catechesis space in our school room, too.  The big boys have actually set up the prayer table several times using the Advent purple cloths, candles, and prophecies (same ones as mentioned above) prayer cards.  I'm sure it has more to do w/ the fact that I let them light the candle themselves than any new enthusiasm about prayer!  :) 

In the middle is our Playmobile Nativity,  which even the big boys still love. (I'm sure that can easily be found on-line by googling Playmobil- they have so many excellent building sets.)  I love that Mark has been fascinated and very gentle with it when he plays/works w/ it.  On the bottom is an image & book of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast day of Dec 12 falls on a Sunday this year.  We'll probably watch our video on her and feast on Mexican food (nothing too special in this house!) on the 9th of Dec which is the feast of her beloved Juan Diego.

*Edited to correct some typas (ha, ha) and add some additional info on how we use the wreath each day, for all those readers with questions.  (Man, I'm hilarious tonight.)