When I was in college, my room mate made a gift for me. She had seen poinsettia lights for sale in the gift store where she worked and decided she could make them for less money. So she did, and she gave them to me. I loved them!
Our first Christmas after we were married, these lights wrapped all around our little Charlie Brown yard sale artificial Christmas tree. We also had some other lights on the tree, but the red poinsettia lights really dressed up the tree.
Eventually, we got a larger tree, and we couldn't really stretch this one strand to wrap around the whole tree anymore. Instead, we began to use them in other parts of our living room. Our entire family enjoys them, and finding new places to display them.
Behind the poinsettia lights, in the hall, you can see another ElCloud family tradition. My sister bought us this perpetual advent calendar several years ago. We love it! It's made of felt, and the tree has gold knobby buttons sewn on it. They look like gold ornaments, but they also provide the hooks to hang the little ornaments on each day of the month between Dec. 1 and Christmas.
Each night, we alternate which child hangs up the ornament, starting with the youngest and working our way up to the oldest. Our oldest children no longer care about getting their turn, but their younger siblings want them to take a turn, so they still do. We count down our way to Christmas with Advent devotions, as well as this Advent calendar.
When I was a young child, our family was stationed in Germany. It was there that we first were introduced to Advent calendars. We had the type with chocolate in them one year, and other years we had the ones with just pictures to open. It was a special memory, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do the same with my children.
Do you have any special traditions for the Advent season?
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April E.
