Advent Week Four: Celebrate!

All along I've had this rough idea in mind that our fourth week of advent would be themed Celebrate!  I knew I wanted to host a Happy Birthday Jesus Party as part of this week and of course there would be Christmas Eve candle light service and Christmas morning presents, but I wasn't sure what I would do on the days in between.

As I reflected and reread Luke 2 and Matthew 2, I noticed how the different people who met the baby Jesus responded to him:  they all celebrated!  Although we'd focused on the plot events during week two, we hadn't really honed in on their reactions.

On the agenda for this final week we have  . . .

• A Happy Birthday Jesus Party
• The Shepherd's response to Christ--Luke 2:16-20, focusing on glorifying and praising God
• The Magi's response to Christ--Matthew 2:11, focusing on worshiping and giving gifts
• Simeon and Anna--Luke 2:25-38, focusing on giving thanks and on recognizing Jesus as light to the world
• Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
• Reading our favorite nativity book and adding baby Jesus to the nativity scene

I'm running a few days behind on my posts and I'd really like to get everything recorded for reference next year, so my apologies to anyone reading along if I do a little binge-posting in the next day or two.

Today, Big Brother prayed and said, "Thank you God for Christmas, but it's very hard to wait!"