The Problem (expecting Christmas)

It's our first day of "Expecting Christmas." As you can see I didn't get it done on the "correct" day. We'll just do activities when we can. Since we are going to fly through the old testament, leading up to Jesus birth, we started with "the problem," in the big picture. Adam and Eve sin. For my kids, this is a familiar story so we just talked it through while cooking. You could read it out of a Children's Bible or out of Genesis 3.

For our Christmas fun, we attempted to make caramel apples (to go along with the fruit Eve ate.) I have never really tried making candy so it didn't turn out perfect. However, we still ended up with some treats to share with teachers at school. Everyone loves an early gift. For simple instructions using store-bought caramels try this. Or for a made-from-scratch version, try these.

To be completely honest, I also had an aha moment. After we made the apples the kids were getting a bit rowdy so I sent them outside (it was not cold.) I told them to pretend they were banished from the house until Daddy got home, just as Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden. However, after a short while it hit me. God didn't send the people out of the garden while he stayed IN the garden. God stays WITH his people. So, I went outside to wait with the kiddos, and we ended up singing Christmas songs. It made for a good memory.