Advent Adventures: Gifts of the Heart
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These next 6 Sundays I will post an Advent picture book selected from A Daily Picture Book Advent and Christmas Booklist with a simple craft and a recipe. For this first Sunday of Advent, I want to turn inward and re-center on my family. Gifts of the Heart by Patricia Polacco is the perfect picture book to start a family-focused Advent.
Gifts of the Heart
Straight from her childhood’s history Patricia Polacco brings us a story of a Christmas that could easily have been the saddest in her life but became one of the most unforgettable. Her family is going through tough times and does not have the money to spend on Christmas extras. But their new housekeeper, Kay Lamity (how much I love her name! It always makes me chuckle), shows them the value of gifts of the heart instead of gifts from the store. I want to open Advent with this story to help my children understand the value of giving rather than receiving and how a gift of the heart is so much more valued than trinkets from the store.
Craft
In the story, Patricia and her brother Richie use raw material from their farm to create the most perfect Christmas presents. Similarly we will be creating a very meaningful, to us, Christmas present for family and friends. This fall the girls and I reveled in the opening of milkweed seed pods. We gathered many, many of them and we will be transforming them into Christmas ornaments. Here is our inspiration. I am thinking super simple: hot glue gun, dried pods and a bead or pompom for the middle, and twine to hang it with. Some of the girls will want to paint the inside, I already know it. And that’s totally fine.
Why is it a gift of the heart?
This is a meaningful and beautiful gift as it was harvested on our farm and brings up delightful memories of afternoons spent gathering the pods. It was a special time with my girls, for them and for me, and this is a wonderful way for us to share it with our loved ones.
Spend some time thinking of something meaningful to share with family and friends, a simple and small ornament is always welcome. It could be taken from nature, it could be handmade in any medium (salt dough, paintings, etc…). The important part is for it to come from your heart and have meaning for you and for the person you will be gifting it to.
Yumminess
In the story Kay Lamity bakes bread pudding, Patricia and her mom’s favorite. What is a favorite family dessert or secret family recipe that you could bake today? In our family we have a secret cheesecake recipe (it’s a secret, so I can’t share it… I was sworn to secrecy when I received it AFTER I got married. True story!) So we will be making our family cheesecake. Again it has meaning, it has memories attached to it, it is of the heart. If you do not have a favorite family dessert, start a new tradition! Find your family’s favorite dessert and start making it for special occasions: holidays, holy days, birthdays, etc… A family’s favorite dessert is a tradition worth having!
For this first week of Advent, keep it simple, keep it family centered, be present and enjoy it!
Have a very blessed first week of Advent!
Love,
Mattie
