Away in the Manger

We bought an advent calendar just in time for this Christmas season.  You wouldn't think that a nativity advent calendar would be hard to find considering that the purpose of advent is to focus us on the birth of Christ (and his return).  Unfortunately, that isn't so--Charlton had to surf through dozens of Santa and his elves, snowmen, and various other kinds of cartoon-like decorative calendars to find this one.  We wanted something that would help Steven become more involved in our family worship time and get him excited about the story of Christ's birth (the reason we celebrate Christmas).  

Charlton did an awesome job finding this one because Steven loves it!  Each door contains a magnetic nativity character that he places in the stable background.  He usually asks to do it during the day and always wants to open more than one door at night.  It has totally changed our devotional time because he is now enthusiastic about everything we are doing and is actively participating.  It's been a practical way for us to share and explain Christ's birth to him in a way him can understand.  He'll be sad to put it away but it's a new tradition that we'll look forward to having with him every Christmas season.