Preparing for Advent: A Catholic Family Advent

Advent can be a hectic time of year.  You're busy doing a million and one things trying to get ready for Christmas.  It's important to take a break from the hustle and bustle and make yourself and your family slow down here and there and take a few moments to focus on what Advent really is [a time to prepare your heart and mind for the splendor of the miracle that is Christmas].

Susan Hines-Brigger's A Catholic Family AdventPrayers and Activities is a nice book to help you focus yourself and your family on Advent and preparing for Christmas.  Unlike some daily Advent books, this is one that can be used year after year since it offers an entry for the maximum number of days you can have in any given Advent season.  For each day this book offers an entry with the following categories: scripture, reflection, talk together, prayer and activity.  The entries can be read over the course of a couple of minutes so even the most impatient children should be able to sit still and listen and discuss the topic for the day.  The author suggests you read through the book ahead of time and check out the suggested activities so you can make changes to fit your lifestyle where necessary.  For the most part, the reflections seem like that are primarily geared to the adults, but the other categories are all perfectly suited for the whole family.

The book has beautiful full color pages that both children and adults will find attractive.  I'm so used to white pages with black type that I was pleasantly surprised to see the colorful pages.

I like how the book essentially brings Advent to you.  If your family is busy and you think there simply isn't any way you'll have time to celebrate every day of Advent, I'd suggest you take a look at this book.

I was provided with a review copy of A Catholic Family Advent by the publisher, Franciscan Media, in exchange for my honest review.  You can purchase this book here.