"...And the darkness has not understood it."

"In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." -John 1:1-5

Reading that is like that first candle in advent... the light in the darkness. One solitary light but the beginning of the "most wonderful time of the year". I finally made our advent wreatah yesterday and a chain of activities:

For a 2 1/2 year old, these were truly exciting. And my mom bought the girls the playmobil advent calender I was still secretly wanting, but unable to justify in my budget:

(The unicorn was not included.) I had high hopes of starting on Sunday, the true first day of advent, but unfortunately I just didn't have time! Today our first advent activity was to take out the manger scene:

I didn't have an actual manger that came with this nice wooden set, but our rainbow worked quite well! I am keeping my eye out at the thrift stores for a cheap manger. I LOVE DECEMBER and CHRISTMAS!!!