What a Great Little Book for Advent!

Recently, we were mailed a really neat little book to review,

Joy to the World: Advent Activities for Your Family, by Kathleen M. Basi

Source: liguori.org via Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama on Pinterest

Written from a Roman Catholic perspective, it is perfect for all Christian families who want to prepare their homes for the coming of Christ and the Christmas Season. This lovely book helps families, especially those with young children, to redirect their energies on celebrating Advent.

The approach of the book highlights three key concepts for Advent, namely:

The Advent Calendar, the Evening Ritual, and the Good Deeds Manager.

Advent calendar:

The Advent Calendar organizes activities into four categories:

Service, Spiritual Growth, "Homebody," and Pure Fun!

Included in the book is a great sample Advent Calendar.

Each day, it lists an activity as well as the category for the activity.

For example:

Day 1 Activity:

Make Christmas cards for grandparents.

(Homebody)

Day 2 Activity:

Make Jesus’ Manger.

(Homebody & Spiritual Growth)

Day 3 Activity:

Make candy.

(Pure Fun!)

Under the Pure fun section, Kathleen explains how a family can include some of the secular fun for little ones, including Santa. If you have ever grappled with how to include the secular fun parts of the holiday with the Christian religious aspects of the holiday, you will love this book, as it keeps things in perspective, that it is fine to have pure family fun, whether you are making Rudolph ornaments, decorating gingerbread houses, or singing songs about Santa, Frosty, and the others but then, to make sure that as a family, the emphasis comes back to the religious meaning and aims towards developing spiritual growth in all family members…that is key.

Evening Ritual:

This includes both the Advent wreath and the Jesse tree

Features easy-to-understand versions of Scriptures.

Children will love these and will find them easy to understand.

We are really excited about making a Jesse Tree! We have not made one before, so it will be nice to integrate that into our family’s nightly Advent routine.

Good Deeds Manger: 

This involves having all family members, young and old alike, prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Since Advent is here, plan to update you as we do different activities from this book.  
Have set up an entire Advent Calendar Board on Pinterest so if you want to see our Advent activities in progress, please be sure to check out my Pinterest Advent Calendar Ideas Board.

The timing of receiving this book is amazing, as our family really wants to focus our attention on Advent and spending time explaining to the boys that Jesus is the reason for this season. If you are interested in purchasing this book, you can order it through Liguori Publications.

Joy to the World: Advent Activities for Your Family is also available through Amazon.com

Thanks to Kathleen for putting her heart into writing this insightful and inspiring book!

Also, please keep Kathleen in your prayers. She is expecting a baby due in mid-December and is hoping to make it to term with this active little one!

What joy…to have a new little one who will arrive in time for Christmas! Wow!!! Awesome!!!

Kathleen has a very inspiring blog called So Much to Say, So Little Time.

Kathleen describes her blog as Life at the intersection of Faith, parenting, and the written word.

When you know that that is her mantra for her blog, it is not a surprise that her book, Joy to the World: Advent Activities for Your Family also touches upon Faith, family, and the day-to-day, in this case, the day-to-day during Advent.

Please be sure to pop by and tell Kathleen that you read this review of her nice book and to wish her and her family well on her new baby-to-be!