Advent Calendar Project

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I had hoped to get this posted much sooner, but somehow time got away from me. No worries, though - there is still plenty of time to put into practice what I'm about to share with you.


Last year about this time, I was feeling sort of 'blue' about Christmas coming; I didn't know why. Somehow the thought of the approaching holiday just didn't hold that much excitement for me. It always seemed to be about the same old stuff:: rushing around here and there to get all my shopping and wrapping done; trying to  schedule family get togethers; worrying about all the calories you are putting on and on and on the list could go. I know you all understand what I am talking about - It is called stress.

We live under so much stress that we miss the moments that are gone in a blink. I wasn't looking forward to another Christmas season like that again - all of the distractions and stress again. I wanted Christmas to be different that year. I wanted to truly understand more at the heart level the true meaning of the season, and I wanted to learn it as a family. I didn't know how that would look, or even what I was hoping for. All I knew was that I wanted us, as a family, to strive to keep our focus more on Jesus than ever before, instead of on all of the other stuff.

During the season of Advent, Christians across the world prepare for the celebration of the arrival of the Lord into the world through the birth of His son Jesus Christ. Advent is a time to celebrate light in the midst of darkness. What a wonderful word picture for this time of year - it's truly a time of Celebration.

A Celebration of Jesus coming into the world to save us: God's gift to all people.

Usually Advent is "celebrated" with the help of the infamous "Advent Calendars". You know the ones: where each day up until Christmas you open the little "compartment" and take out the piece of candy or chocolate. Or (like mine) you move the small wooden snowflake to the next pocket. It is a fun way to countdown until Christmas Day, especially for the kids.

So one day as I was reading on one of my favorite sites (www.incourage.com), I stumbled upon a blog post where the writer wrote about she and her family were doing a Advent Calendar Project. My curiosity was intrigued, not at all surprising with me. 

Their idea was to "add to" the usual calendar idea, but instead focus more on what we could do each day for Jesus up until His birthday to show our love for Him.    

Hmmm - I thought. Maybe this is just the thing to make our Christmas different this year!

I explained the idea to Mark and the kids; they were all on board and ready to go. We then typed up our ideas (borrowed some from the blog post or from googling "random acts of kindness"), printed and cut them out; then folded and tucked each little slip of paper into each "pocket". This could easily be done just writing them out on paper, too. Megan, our famous artist in the family, immediately went to work at creating the perfect calendar for our project:

I must say I was a bit nervous how this project would pan out. Would the first few days be exciting and then the whole notion fizzle away like so many other things we've tried (remember the chore charts?) Would the kids even "get" the message of what we were suppose to be learning? Would this just turn out to be more effort than it was worth?

Anyway, we went ahead with direction and excitement. It ended up being a lot of fun, and good family memories were made. In the end, I was actually quite surprised at how well our Advent Calendar Project turned out - How much we, ourselves, were blessed by simply giving to others.

I remember very clearly the day when we were about half way through the month when I had an "A-ha moment." Matthew texted me on the  way home from school: What is the plan for tonight? Intuitively, I knew what he was really asking, but I wanted to be sure so I asked him, "Do you mean what's for supper tonight? He texted back: No what are we going to do today for the calendar?

Wow! I was stunned! Speechless! Moved! This is a "teenager" I am talking about here. He actually cared and was into this whole thing! And if he was "into" it, then I'm sure Megan and Luke were too. I smiled to myself, and tucked that away for later.

Up until this time I wasn't sure any of it was making a dent with any one of them, except for maybe Mark or myself. After my "A-ha moment", it became a great joy for me to watch them do the assigned "task" for the day and to see the excitement and joy on their faces. They truly got the lesson that they needed to learn. Mark and I included.

We all learned through our Advent Calendar Project that when you give to someone in need; when you serve someone who needs help; when you do something for someone without expecting anything in return; or when you go out of your way to smile at a stranger - that when you do all of these random acts of kindness you really are showing Jesus' Love to others, and naturally, like a magnet, His Love comes back to you.

I finally understood that when you give to others, that you are also being blessed as well. You get that warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart and it just spills out and over. You feel happy, like you are walking on a cloud, just knowing you made someone smile, or lightened their load a bit. Or extended love.....probably to someone who truly needed it at just that perfect moment (because you know there is no such thing as luck or coincidences, right?)

Well, I got what I had hoped for last year: a different kind of Christmas: One that was the most significant and memorable Christmas seasons of my entire life so far! And I give all the credit to the path that led me to the Advent Calendar Project idea.

We will be doing our project again this year - starting tomorrow - December 1st already. We still need to get organized a bit. We are a little behind schedule since returning from our vacation. I guess we'll just have to do a few "double blessing" days.

Officially, I think this is now technically considered a Grade family Christmas tradition.

I encourage you to do the Advent Calendar Project with us this year if you can (literally or simply in your heart). Whether it is something you do alone, or as a family, with or without kids.....none of that matters. Just get creative! Ask the kids (if you have them) for ideas - you'd be surprised at what they come up with. And it doesn't have to cost a thing - that means FREE.

I welcome comments along the way, if you are doing the "project" or not. I'll be posting my stories along the way, but I still would love to hear yours!

Here are  ideas of some of the things we did last year to help get you started: shoveled snow for a neighbor for free; let someone skip ahead of us in a long line; made scarves for 2 nursing home residents; paid for the order behind us in a Starbuck's drive-thru; wrapped presents at the Rescue Mission; baked Jesus a birthday cake, read the Christmas story together as a family under candlelight.....just simple, fun ways to express love and kindness to others during this very special season of Celebration & Love.

I can’t wait to see what God does through us this Christmas season using the Advent Calendar Project idea again. I hope to read how this Christmas season was your different kind of Christmas, like it was for me last year.