Day 12 David

Today the story is about David...only to the Goliath story

The dinner consists of:

• Porcupine meatballs for the 5 smooth stones (I leave out the salt and poultry seasoning)


• rice for the sandy dirt where David got the stones


• biscuits, rolled out to about twice their size, dipped in melted butter and then dredged in Parmesan cheese for shields (like the one King Saul gave to David to wear) baked about 7 minutes, I think at 350(keep an eye on them)


• asparagus for a spear


• Rold Gold pretzels...the cheese ones...for praying hands

(2011 addition...in the spirit of full disclosure, I know we are not going to eat this this year. We have a field trip, then basketball practice and a Christmas recital. We aren't even going home all day. So...the dinner will be hamburger (shield) french fries (spear) and apple dippers that may get cut to be stones...bringing the dessert to eat in the car and the veggie tale to watch in the car. Love to have the real advent meal, but sometimes it's just not possible. Next year:-))

For the dessert (and remember some are better than others...) we are using

• Pepperidge Farm gingerbread men for Goliath


• Gummy Bears for David, the Philistines, the Israelites or whoever you want...


• and m&ms for the stones...

The story of David and Goliath can be found here. Or if you have it, you could watch VeggieTales Dave and the Giant Pickle.We made a little sling (rubber band) with a stone a few years back for our ornament. You could just use 5 stones...whatever would represent the story to your family. (2011 addition or listen to it here www.bible.is/ENGESV/1Sam/17 )

Day 13 Samuel

2020 Update!  Thanks to Covid 19, the goal this year is to do EVERY day of Advent, so we are adding Gideon & Ruth, before Samuel, and Jonah before Isaiah & Daniel before the 400 years of silence/darkness. At some point, I will shift all of these around but it is going to be a process...If you want to follow what we are doing, scroll over to Gideon and then Ruth before Samuel. 

Today we are celebrating Samuel the prophet.

Food Suggestions:

• Cheesesteak sandwich-the meat which Eli's sons wanted to be cooked improperly.


• fried onions-Hannah's crying because she wanted a baby


• mashed potatoes, applesauce-baby food


• turnovers (whatever flavor you like) for a pillow (Samuel was sleeping when he heard God calling). Or a Klondike ice cream square. We did that one year and everyone liked it.

2020 addition-we are having an ice cream sandwich with hot caramel and toffee bits on top.  This is outrageously good for people who don't mind some foods mixed together.

Our ornament is a bed made of Legos.


Here is the story... (2011 addition Audio Bible www.bible.is/ENGESV/1Sam/1 listen through Chapter 3)

Day 10 Joshua

Joshua and the Wall of Jericho...

Joshua Food Suggestions🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

• Chicken-because he was afraid. (2011 addition-This year we are going to make chicken and
  
  
  noodles in the crock pot. Chicken because he was afraid and noodles for the flax they hid under:-)) (2013 we changed back to fried chicken, because the kids really like that, but if you are under a time crunch, the chicken and noodles is easy and actually, it is one of our Christmas Day lunch options... see recipe on Christmas Day) 2020 Update- Roasted Chicken

• Hashbrowns-for the flax that the spies hid under  2020 Update-French Fries


• Cornbread (the wall)-This is the simplest recipe for the old Tippins Cornbread copycat and if you like cornbread that is kind of sweet and not too grainy, try this:

1. 2 boxes Jiffy cornbread


2. 1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix
   
   
   


3. The other things that would make those (I think it will be 3 eggs, some milk and some water...just put whatever it says on the back of the box.


4. Mix it all together, pour into a 9x13 greased pan. Wait about 15 minutes (I think the cornbread box says to do that) Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Keep an eye on it and when it is golden brown take it out of the oven. It is a little crumbly, but really good for the amount of work you just did. This makes a big amount and you CAN use 1 box cornbread mix and 1/2 the cake mix, 2 eggs and half the water and milk, but it is more crumbly...give it a try.

• Pomegranate for the red cord Rahab put out the window.


• Fudge-I always get the little kit on the baking aisle...Eaglebrand I think, and make the cubes into a wall. A little red hot stuck in somewhere...Unless you have a huge group, you will have fudge forever. 2020 Update-made a half batch.  Did not set up well but tasted good

Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Joshua 1-6

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Joshua 1-6

Joshua Ornament🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

The ornament is a ram horn that we made from Sculpey, but I think another great one would be just a red cloth strip tied to a branch of the tree.

We have a video of this story (Greatest Heroes of the Bible-Hannah Barbara) that we will probably watch. Veggietales Josh and the Big Wall.... There is also an arch book called Jericho's Tumbling Walls that is pretty good. 

My kids love this one...the story and the fudge.:-)
 

Day 9 Moses

I have friends who feel like all of this Advent meals stuff is alot of trouble.  Most nights it is not.  We have to eat dinner anyway.  But I have to say, this one takes a little more effort.  Now that I have said that and looked at the dinner, it doesn't really.  The wings are a process anytime you make them, but you could buy wings.  It would be nice if they still had the tips so they look more "leggy" but you could have them without.  The raspberry is a little tedious, but you could just melt a little bit of raspberry jam.  So there...not that much work. 

Moses (10 Plagues) Food Suggestions 🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

1. Blood-raspberry sauce to go around the brownie

2. Frogs -chicken wings without the wingtip (we did our buffalo style, and with just butter and salt after frying for the kids) (2011 addition-This year we are going to make heroin wings--I hate that name---because we have some kind of weird time constraints and these are supposedly good the next day (and I have had them and they ARE fabulous) so I can just heat them with the crescent rolls...here is the link, but you can find recipes for it all over the internet:-) Heroin (ugh) Wings

3. Gnats-couscous

4. Flies - raisins (thanks Don:-))

5. Cattle Dying-cook a hot dog (beef;-)). Cut into 1 inch pieces. Set one on each plate like a little tower. Before eating the meal, tell everyone to knock it down (symbolic of animals dying)

2020 Update-leftover beef tenderloin

6. Boils (wanted to use those butter mints you get at a wedding, but didn't think of it soon enough...used M&Ms instead or a Reese's peanut butter cup.)

2020 Update-Lifesaver Gummies...my people do not share my tunnel vision for chocolate.

7. Locusts/crops decimated-used sugar snap peas...I thought they looked kind of locust-ish, but Darth said that it was the crops....works for me.

8. Darkness-brownies

9. Hail-little scoop of ice cream.

10. Death-crescent rolls unrolled...keep the two triangles together to form a rectangle. Bake for about 5 minutes at 375. We said this was a shroud.You can get 4 of these out of a tube...they are pretty big. 

2020 Update-diagonal perforations sealed and 2 crescent rolls cut vertically.  Rolled into thirds to make sort of a jellyrolls shape.  Place on baking sheet, seam down and baked. 

Arrange all but the raspberry sauce, brownie, pb cup and ice cream on a dinner plate.

Put the raspberry sauce on a plate, stick the brownie on top and put a little scoop of ice cream. Garnish with pb cup.

Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Exodus 7-12

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Exodus 7-12

Usually we watch the movie "The Prince of Egypt".

Moses Ornament 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

For the ornament, we made little tablets and just put the Roman Numerals of 1-10 on there...that's kind of funny now that I think of it since Moses wasn't a Roman.

Day 8 Joseph

Joseph is one of my family's favorites.  I think most people enjoy the story, as it is told in such detail. My children also really like the colorful dessert and the fact that there is a movie to go with it.  I think that as they get older, the actual excitement of these nights is replaced with nostalgia.  

Food Suggestions: 🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

• spaghetti (for the bowing grain) in Joseph's dream.
  
  
  


• meatballs (pre-made frozen) (for the dream cows that ate each other)


• corn (for the dream corn) in Pharoah's dream.


• breadsticks (just out of the tube in the refrig section. (for the grain that Joseph kept track of)


2020 Update- I made a loaf of garlic bread (french bread from Walmart sliced and garlic buttered, wrapped in foil and heated for 30 minutes at 350.  I don't know where those breadsticks have gone, but I am sad about it.


• multi-colored cake...I have used tinted icing, tinted cake, and this year I am going to use the
  
  
  recipe at the bottom of this post and substitute baking m&ms for the chocolate chips

Packable Chocolate Chip Cake (from Barbara Hofstede via Taste of Home Magazine) 

1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1/4 c water
4 eggs 
1 to 1 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (the big ones sometimes break up the cake)
1 cup powdered sugar (for garnish)

1. In a large bowl, combine the dry cake mix, sour cream, oil, water and eggs. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips.
2. Pour into a greased 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Just before serving, dust with powdered sugar. Really good if heated in the microwave for about 15 seconds and then dusted with powdered sugar. About 10 servings.

2020 Update -I used a Jiffy Cake Mix and halved the  Packable Chocolate Cake recipe.  Made 6 cupcakes.  I forgot to tint the batter so I tried to put some drops in and swirl around.  No.  Does not work.  Also mini chips are infinitely better than regular for this recipe. 

This story is pretty lengthy.  It might be better for small children with a video or a storybook that just hits the high points...
Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Genesis 37  Genesis 39-46

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Genesis 37
Genesis 39-46

A few years ago I got a copy of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond. It has some kind of naughty moments with Potipher's wife and what I believe is a prostitute with Jacob and the brothers and is not completely accurate all around, but it's fun and the kids know the real story so they usually point out the wrong parts...the racy parts have passed over my kids up to now, but if it starts to be a problem, we will stop watching it...

2020 update-There is a scene with Potiphar's wife that is pretty explicit for kids... you can decide whether to fast forward past it (or similar)

There is also an episode of Beginner's Bible that is the story of Joseph and an episode of Veggie Tales (Little Joe, I think) that could be used. 


Ornament-Joseph 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Day 7 Jacob

We are doing Jacob today.

(2011 addition The ornament is a ladder. To signify the ladder with which the angels were ascending and descending from heaven. We made it from drinking straws, but I am sure there are several ways to do it. Can't believe I forgot to put the ornament.)

The first year we did it, the only food related thing we had was candybars which I carefully (painstakingly) took from their wrappers and mixed up so that when everyone chose they were tricked.


(2011 addition: This year a friend suggested we use all the tiny candies; m&m's, reeses pieces, boston baked beans, etc, and change out the boxes, so that is what we are going to do...shshsh!)


(2012 addition) This year we saw some fake cupcakes at Hobby Lobby at $10 for 2---too high for me, but maybe on sale...anyway, instead of that, I took some little condiment cups, put the lids on, put them in a muffin paper and frosted...then had real ones after the jig was up)

(2012 addition)
This year we could not pull together this meal, so I made a roast for the savory meat.  We had chicken noodle soup (a can split 5 ways so very small) for the pottage instead of baked beans and gnocchi instead of mashed potatoes for the rock for Jacob's head when he was sleeping.

(2013 addition)  Left the candy in it's original packaging. 

(2014 addition) will post after Wednesday (that is when we are doing this one) MWAH-HA-HA...

Food Suggestions 🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

• chicken fried steak (as the meat that was specially prepared for Isaac-2013 addition recipe below)

• baked beans (for the soup for which Esau traded his birthright)



• mashed potatoes in a ball for the rock he laid his head on.



• carrots (good for your eyes...Isaac was blind ya know...work with me here)



• grapes (like eyeballs...I know that is gross, but some here aren't carrot fans)
• and the candybars or other deceiving desserts..

2020 Update

• Beef Tenderloin
  
  
  
• Baked Potato
• Grapes
• Chicken Soup with Stars
• Candy packages

This is my recipe for Chicken Fried Steak.

• 3 lbs tenderized round steak (about 1/2 pound per person)
• 2 to 2 1/2  c flour (maybe not this much but just in case
• 1 1/2 T McCormick's Perfect Pinch Original Chicken Seasoning (if you can't find this, look around for a fried chicken recipe that has some seasonings...garlic, onion, salt, pepper, seasoning salt...I may find one later, but this premade is perfect)
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 c milk
• 2 cups vegetable or canola oil
•  electric skillet if at ALL possible

Directions:

Remove visible fat from steak.  Cut into 1 1/2 inch by 4 to 6 inch strips...that is a starting point.  You will figure out what your family likes...I like doing this so that I KNOW it is cooked through...and the crunchy on this is really good.

Heat about 1 inch of oil in the skillet.  Maybe 350?  Mine has 1-5 dots and I use 3.  There may be a setting on yours for fried chicken.  As you cook it, you will know whether to turn it up or down.
Mix half of seasoning and flour together in a bowl.  Again, you may want to adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Mix 2 eggs and 1/2 c milk together in another bowl.

Dredge the strips of meat in the flour with your left hand, a few at a time.

Dip the dredged strips in the egg mixture with a fork or a pair of tongs or your right hand.

Dredge the strips again in the flour

Carefully place strips in the hot skillet.

Repeat until the skillet is full or you have used all the strips.  They can be close but not overlapping.
When the first side is golden brown, flip to the other side.  Start checking these after a few minutes and work down the pan in the order you put the strips in.

When I make this, I can pretty much dredge/dip/dredge/fry as I go, but you can also prepare all the meat and lay it out on wax paper or something and put them in pretty much at the same time.

When both sides look crusty golden brown, remove to a plate.  I just pile them up.  You could also put a piece of brown paper bag on a cookie sheet and lay them out and into the oven to keep warm.  Don't "cook" them again in the oven though...just warm.

Repeat with remainder of ingredients...I don''t mix all the dredge or eggs at first because it gets kind of thick (the eggs mix) and lumpy (the flour mix) so I like to kind of start again new when that happens.

These are pretty good plain, but with cream gravy, if you like that, they are mindblowingly great.

CFS Cream Gravy

• Dregs from frying the CFS
• leftover flour mix or just flour
• 2 1/2 c milk

If you have too much oil left in your pan, pour some out.  Enough to cover the bottom is probably good.  Sprinkle in flour (or flour mix) and stir on a medium heat.  A whisk is good for this and if you have one of those ones that looks like a tiny Slinky, that is better.  You want enough flour to absorb the oil but not so much that the oil is not incorporated into the flour.  Flour without incorporated oil = lumps.  Then turn your heat to low and start adding milk.  If your skillet is pretty hot, it will mix in quickly, but sometimes you have to add more milk because all the liquid is being cooked out.  Keep adding milk and stirring until you get to a consistency that you like.

If this is not going to be eaten pretty much immediately, it will thicken more than you might like, so you might need to add some water or milk at serving time.  If you have to do this, it may look like it is not going to loosen up, but it will...just add liquid and stir (or whisk if it is thin enough)

Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Genesis 27   Genesis 28

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Genesis 27  Genesis 28

Jacob Ornament 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Ladder made of straws

Day 6 Issac

Food Suggestions 🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴


*blackened chicken (Paul Prudhome's seasoning, fried it butter)
*french fries (looks kind of like wood, right?)
*pickles (they were kind of in a pickle)
*smores (microwave)

(2014 update...so many school events this year....some days we are only doing dessert, story and ornament...tonight we are having Golden Graham Smores.  Bringing them in the car on the way home from a night of basketball...and the audio of the story in the car.  Not the best, but at least we will still be on track)

2020 Update

We went to Sunday lunch with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Suzanne, so we did not have the "big" meal at home.  For dinner, we had

• Hot dog (burnt offering)
  
  
  
• Pasta Roni 4 Cheese Corkscrew pasta (wood)
• Slaw (the thicket) 
• s'mores pie

Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Genesis 22

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Genesis 22

Isaac Ornament🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Ram ornament...I actually made this out of Sculpey a couple of years ago. You could just buy one that is plastic or whatever... This is the story where Abraham is willing to follow the Lord by sacrificing his son.

Day 5 Abraham

Today we are doing Abraham...the promise of lots of descendants, all that.

Food Suggestions:🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

• Roast (the calf) (just in the crockpot with Cavendars Greek Seasoning, a packet of onion soup mix and about 1/3 cup water on low all day) 
•  brown gravy


• Rhodes rolls for the bread. (2013 update...I forgot to make the rolls...we have some flour tortillas and we are going to have those...I think in the story that the bread may be unleavened anyway:))  (2014 update) Here is another idea...Greek restaurants have pita bread and it is very authentic looking....


• green beans


• tiny pasta that I found in the Latino part of Buy for Less.


• star shaped cookies (dough in the chub) that we will frost (with canned frosting and maybe some sprinkles) tonight.

Update 2020

• Indian Fry Bread (Rhodes Rolls flattened--2 together-- and deep fried
  
  
  
• BBQ Pork
• Orzo (I couldn't find the little star pasta)
• Carrots (wood for the fire/covenant)
• Star Cookies

Scripture Reading📗📘📙📗📘📙

Genesis 15

Scripture Audio🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Genesis 15

Abraham Ornament 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Our ornament is a long (maybe 2 1/2 feet X 6 inches) dark piece of paper covered with stick on gold and silver stars. We just kind of set it in the branches. The effect is kind of dramatic looking...

Day 4-Tower of Babel

My kids have always liked this story...one year we took it out and boy, did I hear about it!
We pick a bunch of foods from different places...

Foods-🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴

• Polish Sausage (we like to cut it in disks and put BBQ sauce on it or dip it in mustard) (Poland...maybe)
• Fettucine Alfredo (Italy) (with Classico Alfredo sauce)
• Sugar Snap Peas (Japan) (frozen foods)
• Matzo Bread (Jewish) (bought) or sourdough bread with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil
• Cheesecake (French) (bought)

update 2013- This year we are eating...

• Fajita Chicken with Onions and Peppers (and sour cream and shredded Mexican Cheese garnish) (Mexico)
• White Rice  (Asian)
• Soft Pretzels (Germany)
• Salad (Greece)
• Cheesecake (France)

Update 2020

• Beef Stroganoff -Russia
  
  
  
• Sugar Snap Peas- Holland (Not Japan!😲)
• Chapati-East Africa
• Dessert-Cheesecake (Greece) with cherry pie filling (found out it was not from France 😲

                                                                          This is our 2020 gathering (Aunt Suzanne, photographer)

Scripture Reading 📗📘📙📗📘📙  

Genesis 11

Scripture Audio 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Genesis 11

Tower of Babel Ornament 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Our ornament is just a piece of paper with Hello in about 12 languages. You can get this on the internet.

Here is one site with lots of them. You can change the fonts to make each language origin look different.

Day 3-Noah

Welcome to Advent Day 3! 

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Food suggestions for the Noah Dinner:

• Popcorn shrimp or fish sticks (or fish if you like that...2011 sushi? talapia? salmon? Truth moment: I have one in my family that does not like fish at ALL. Have done popcorn chicken in the past, but this year I am going to use those little frozen dinosaurs shaped chicken, which opens a whole new theological discussion...)
• Potato boats (2011 you could also use sweet potatoes and fix them up, marshmallows, butter, brown sugar)
• Broccoli (swimming in cheese sauce) 
• Carrots (for logs)
• Animal crackers (2011 there are several kinds, so look around and find one your family would like)
• Blue jello (2011 toying with using the whipped cream in a can from Thanksgiving for seafoam)
  
  
  

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Potato Boats

• 7 potatoes (we have 7 people at our house)
• shortening
• butter
• sour cream
• cheese and bacon bits

Preheat oven to 400. Grease potatoes with shortening or oil, then put on a foil lined cookie sheet and into the oven. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Some people poke them with a fork to keep them from bursting. I have never had that happen with this method. There may be smoke.

After they are soft, take them out and let cool for 10 minutes or so. Then cut them in half, scoop out the insides into a bowl. Add butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits to taste. I have also taken the butter and sauteed onions in it and added those...not a big fave with the children, but I liked it:-)

Spoon potatoes back into the halves...usually I only use half of the halves (If you want, you can make potato skins out of the others or just smear butter on them and eat them in the kitchen over the sink...) Put a little more cheese on the "boats" and stick in the oven on the foil lined cookie sheet for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

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The audio Biblical account is Genesis 6-8 You could start a little bit in (6:9) and not lose much.

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2020-The Voice Genesis 6-8 (again, starting at verse 9)

Noah Ornament 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Our ornament is a cardboard rainbow that the children colored with a fake dove I bought at Hobby Lobby glued on to it.  I stapled a ribbon loop to the rainbow for hanging.

Day 2 Sin

Welcome to Advent Day 2!

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Food suggestions for "Sin" Dinner-

*Stromboli (when it is whole, it could kind of look like a snake...)

*broccoli-trees (Tree of Life, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil)

*Fried Apples (fruit...forbidden fruit?)

*Cowtails-snake 

*gummy worms-snake

*nerds ropes-snake 

Alternate desserts -apples and hot caramel or caramel apple on a stick

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Stromboli (makes 2 stromboli...half for 1)

• 2 loaves of frozen bread, thawed and risen (following directions on bag) or two pizza-dough-in-a-refrigerator-tube.
• jar pizza sauce
• 3- 8 oz bags of shredded mozzarella cheese (at least)
• 
  pizza fixins...we use browned sausage and pepperoni, but my kids like it with just cheese)
• Parmesan cheese
• melted butter
• garlic salt

Preheat oven to 350

On a cookie sheet, smoosh out bread dough or pizza dough into a 15 inch by 4 inch rectangle (more or less). In the center, spoon a line down the middle of the dough from one long end to the other, leaving about 1.5 inches on either long end.

Sprinkle about 1/3 -1/2 of a bag of cheese from one long end to the other, leaving the very ends empty. Do the same with the pizza toppings and sprinkle with cheese again (about half of whatever you have left)

Fold up the ends about 1 1/2 inches, then bring sides together all the way up. Pinch them together firmly...you should have a long tube-ish looking thing.

Turn it over carefully (seam side down), curve slightly to make it fit on the pan. Cut some slits in the top to vent so that the whole thing doesn't explode the cheese all over when you bake it. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and garlic salt.

Repeat with other dough and ingredients.

Bake about 30 minutes...it should be browned and hollow sounding if you tap it.

Take out of the oven and let cool about 10 minutes....cut into slices and serve, but if you want the kids to see the snake, kind of leave it that shape or show them before you cut it.

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Broccoli 

We just cook the broccoli in the microwave to crisp tender (cut up in a microwave safe pan and covered...no water...for 2 minutes) and put butter on it and melted Cheez Whiz.
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Sauteed Apples

(2011) Tonight I sauteed the apples in butter and put in some brown sugar. My kids won't eat that, so I will give them some apple slices.
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Dessert Pontifications

Apples can go with the meal or for dessert...Cowtails, gummy worms, or nerds rope are the dessert as well. Just one of them...sometimes they can be hard to find. 

(2011 update) May try fried apples for the dessert for people who want them there with the cowtail kind of placed on top and slightly melted...kind of like a caramel apple. Open to suggestions here...

(2013) we added hot caramel dip, as the Cowtails---below--- are increasingly hard to find.) 

(2014) made caramel apples with the wrap-able caramel sheets that we have in the produce section. One child loved these the best, but these are kind of sticky to the teeth so it was a one year event) 

Scripture Reading 

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Genesis 3 The Voice (Scripted Reading)

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Genesis 3  (Dramatized Audio)

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Ornament-Fruit/snake

The ornament is a fruit with a snake on it...however you want to do it. So the Jesse (Christmas) tree at
this point at our house has the world (from Creation)  and the fruit/snake thing(from Sin)...and the  lights...I love the multicolored lights. We have a pomegranate with a plastic snake twisted around it...that gets some interesting reactions from people who are looking at the Christmas tree;-).  But you could also use a plastic apple, or a piece of black cloth or anything that represents "sin" to you

Day 1 Creation

Today we begin with Creation. 

Tip:to add to the festivities, consider keeping the story topic a secret.  Giving clues is allowed if you want to.  After everyone has been through a few Advents, they will become proficient at figuring the story order out. It's nice if no one announces the event until asked. 

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Food suggestions for the Creation Dinner: 

• ribs- for the creation of Eve. (I have always bought ribs because there is enough to do on this day, but you could certainly make them)


• Used refrigerated tube breadsticks to make a "man". One for the head and arms. One for the torso and legs. Kind of stuck together. Bake as directed. (2020- we are cutting pizza dough strips and following these directions.) Try to make the whole man a consistent thickness for baking.  They probably won't look great.  Kids sometimes like to help with this.
  


• grapes....representing the plants. (Actually, as I am reading the creation account, I am not sure there were even vegetables to be had...maybe that was an after-the-Fall invention😉)?


• Corn on the cob...just in case there were vegetables, we will have this...my husband says it counts as a green vegetable, but I think that only works if you eat the husks and these are frozen and already "peeled", so we'll never try have opportunity to try that part.


• 
  Rice Krispie "worlds"...make crisped rice "dough" as per the directions on the box but split into two bowls, with the caveat of adding a copious amount of food coloring to each marshmallow/butter mixture before adding the rice cereal. Let it cool a little bit. Then take some from each bowl and gently form into a ball. It may try to come apart and as it cools, it may need to be re-coaxed into a sphere. This is the world, and it is our first advent dessert! Wrap in plastic wrap and place globes artfully into a large bowl for the table centerpiece. 






• ( 2011) This year, because we had one child in braces, we made cake balls...This is the recipe. Get a box of cake mix and a can of frosting that go together in your taste. Mix them together in a bowl. Make golf ball size balls out of the dough. I like to refrigerate the balls overnight. Place 2 squares vanilla almond bark in a coffee cup and squeeze some blue in there. Microwave about a minute. Stir. Really...don't microwave anymore. Take the balls out of the refrigerator. Dip, using a spoon, one ball at a time in the almond bark mixture. Place on wax paper. Repeat for the number you are making for your group, melting more almond bark as needed. Repeat until all balls are covered. Then melt a couple of squares tinted green. Put a little blob of green on the balls. Put in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Do not put on the table too early, as they may melt.

For the story, you can 

Read the creation account in the Bible

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Copy/paste this script-like version of the Bible and read "parts" or just around the table.

Use a Bible storybook (like Arch) or a collection

Watch a cartoon video of the creation account

🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Use a dramatized audio Bible online

Color a creation themed picture 

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Ornament-World

We have a "world" that we made from a grapevine ball years ago...painted it partly green a partly blue, but you could also make one from cloth or styrofoam or paper (or something else). 

After we read the Creation account, we just kind of stick a branch of the Christmas tree through the grapevine stuff. Our tree is artificial, so the wiry branches can clamp on to most ornaments. 

Remember to look ahead for tomorrow so you aren't caught by surprise...

If you are moving faster than I am, you can go to my old blog: 

beinberean.blogspot.com

to get a rough idea of what is coming up, but be advised that I am updating this as I go.

Yay for you!  Advent Day 1 is in the books!

Angela :-)

Gearing Up for Advent

Welcome!  

I am thrilled to be on your phone or computer screen right now! Thanks for taking a look at our Advent and Christmas ideas...If you decide to undertake some of it, we can do it together😊

But first, some blah blah (this is usually the part I scroll past to get to the action portion and if you do that too, it is totally OK)...   

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This blog exists solely for the purpose of Advent and Christmas the way our family celebrates it. 

We decided when our oldest child was 4 years old that if we were going to change the way we did Christmas, we needed modify before he was able to remember anything else...that way, no long faces (hopefully) on December 25.

We wanted to steer away from presents for Christmas Day, but still celebrate lavishly...the goal was make the whole thing so much fun, no one would even think about presents. Then on New Year's Day, we would do the presents thing...New Year, new things, all the Santa movies...nothing connected with the birth of Jesus. So, to be clear, we are not anti-presents.  We just give them later. We are also not "simplify Christmas" people.  If anything, this may be more involved, especially if you elect to give presents at some point. We just wanted Christmas (and all the December days leading up to it) to be about "waiting for Jesus' birth". 

We have been using this Advent/Christmas "plan" since 2000. There have been changes every year.  I may not always put those in, but if I do, I will put the year that we did it. 

We used to start Advent the day after Thanksgiving, but since the Thanksgiving day date moves every year, we always had different number of days for Advent. For consistency, we eventually decided to start our Advent season every year on December first, which is tomorrow:-).

• The first year we did it, we had the tree ("lights only" to start), the story and ornaments.  
• The next year we did all of that and a dessert.
• The next year we tried to make a fully themed dinner for each night.

All three ways were fun! 

Many years we did all the days except Wednesday because of evening church commitments.  Sometimes we had a school Christmas program and only had time to do the story and dessert.  Sometimes we modified and did the Advent at breakfast 

(2020) This year because of COVID 19, we are doing every day.  So we have added a few stories 

Ruth

Gideon

Jonah

Daniel 

Do what you can when you can.  Change it up day to day.  No hard rules here...

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I am going to put the desserts in red in case you only want that.  

I am adding some icons for 

🍎🍔🍗🍰🍴food suggestions 

📗📘📙readings suggestions

🎧🎧🎧audio suggestions

🎄🎄🎄ornament suggestions 

It's a process, with tweaking every year. 

So this is the prep for tomorrow (and the theme will be Creation). 

I usually make the crisped rice cereal globes on the day we eat them, but you could sneak over to the "recipe" and make them today if you wanted to.

1. Set up the Christmas tree today with lights
2. Figure out some kind of globe or world ornament 🎄🎄🎄
3. Think about how you want to present the Scripture readings.                                                           🎧🎧🎧We have really enjoyed the NIV Audio Bible, but also have used Bible storybooks or Veggie Tales/other Bible cartoons.                                                                                                        (2020-📗📘📙using The Voice translation for some of the readings...copying and marking sections for those participating to read.)
4. Look at the food for the Advent Day 1 meal or dessert. (Speaking of dessert: There is a new one every day.  If you can go in with another family or just make half, you may want to do that).

I'm so glad you are here...🎄💗🎄