Monday, November 12, 2012

Giveaway! Advent in Hearts and Homes

Only a few more weeks will find us beginning that blessed and new season of the next Liturgical Year, preparing our hearts once again for the coming of Our Savior's Birth. The Infant King is asking again to come into our hearts and homes. Are we ready?

In addition to the prayers, reflections, and sacrifices taken up toward this end, consider adding the voices of His Spouses to the spirit of your home this Advent. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles have launched a CD with a large collection of Advent related music - including Gregorian Chant, polyphony, and hymns - in order to share the daily life of love they live through song with those outside the convent walls. Purchasing "Advent at Ephesus" from the sister's website will help support the sisters and assist in the building of a permanent monastery.

Check out this video for a gorgeous glimpse of the music and the spirituality behind the voices!


Now for the Giveaway!!! In the hopes of reflecting the spirit of Advent from heart to home, we are giving away an Advent Embroidered Apron to one lucky winner. This apron would make a fitting addition to the many culinary creations sure to come from your kitchen this Christmas!



To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment to this post, telling us about your favorite Advent tradition. Share the giveaway on facebook and qualify for TWO comment entries!!!!!!

Giveaway will end on November 26th at 12pm. Enter now and this apron just may become yours!



40 comments:

  1. How gorgeous! Advent is such a special season for my family, and a relevant apron to help with the baking would be a lovely addition! May God bless your work!

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  2. I would love to win the apron. we are still very happy with our missal covers.

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  3. Very lovely, like all your work! Thanks for the heads-up on the sisters' CD also, I have been enjoying listening to the samples since you first posted it and will be ordering!

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  4. This apron is lovely! Our newest tradition is to light and decorate our Christmas tree on Gaudete Sunday to help teach our children about the JOY that this Sunday represents. Thank you for your beautiful work!

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  5. The apron is beautiful. I need to share the video with my daughters.

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  6. I love Christmas traditions! We have a several in my family, but I think one of my favorite is that we set up our nativity with just the animals at the start of Advent. We have Mary and Joseph in "Nazareth", the shepherds in a far off "field", and the 3 wisemen scattered throughout the house. Throughout Advent we follow Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. Then, on Christmas, we light a star and move the shepherds and angels to visit Jesus at the stables. Finally, we move the wisemen closer to the stable until Epiphany! As a little kid, it filled me with exciting anticipation for Christmas the entire Advent season, but now, in addition, it reminds me of patient waiting and preparation for Christ's birth.

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    1. Love this, Nikki! Our neighbors do something similar with their outdoor nativity scene - something we look forward to every year. Even my dad has been known to come home from work with a "Holy Family" progress report. : )

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  7. Our more enduring Advent tradition is to have the children draw names for what Maria von Trapp called "Christkindls." In other words, the sibling whose name you draw is like the Christ-Child to you for Advent. You try to do nice things for that person every day.... make his bed, or put a piece of candy under his pillow, or pray for him, that sort of thing. It's always fun on Christmas for the kids to discover who their benefactors were!

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    1. That is so wonderful! I love that!

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    2. I love this idea. We are going to adopt this practice this year! Thank you for the great idea.

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    3. Sue - This is one of our family's favorite traditions, too!!! We also learned about it through Maria von Trapp and look forward to playing "Christkindl" each year. My mom and dad even get "in" on the fun. I like the candy under the pillow idea. Must try that this year. Shhhh! :)

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  8. During Advent, we love to celebrate the feast days of St. Juan Diego, St. Lucis, and St. Nicholas!

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  9. I would say our favorite tradition is gathering in the living room and lighting our Advent wreath. Just always a warm memory for me.

    chipdip2010(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  10. Shared on FB https://www.facebook.com/jill.lear.33/posts/472630702789286
    chipdip2010(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  11. How wonderful! Their are so many favorite traditions but some are reading Advent books, lighting the Advent candles, and preparing our hearts by thinking about with what we can bring to the manger.

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  12. I shared on Facebook!
    https://www.facebook.com/lisa.hincapie/posts/437005209698683

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  13. I would love to add this apron to our collection! It is so lovely!

    Our Advent traditions are growing as the years pass. Favorites would be tree hunting, St. Lucy Day (with St. Lucy buns of course), Immaculate Conception Novena of Masses, baking with my children, practicing Christmas music, and a Christmas tree angel birthday just 3 days before Christmas.

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  14. We decorate our Christmas tree as an "Advent Tree" until Gaudete Sunday. The whole tree is done in purple (even purple lights from Target) & gold w/ splashes of rose here & there - ribbon, bows, decorations & Christmas picks. I wanted our house to be more "Advent-y" until closer to Christmas, but the kids wanted the tree up. So this is our very lovely compromise. On Gaudete Sunday we transform it to the regular Christmas Tree.

    One of our daughters tapes out a path for several sets of wise men from various nativity sets around the downstairs from 11/30-12/6.

    We have several "play-able" nativity sets that the kids can play with. It has been a joy over the years to hear/watch them play with them all.

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  15. We have several traditions during advent. I love lighting the candles on the advent wreath and adding an ornament to the Jesse tree and reading a story to go along with the ornament. I especially love the family prayers we say each night. My favorite tradition though is on Christmas Eve my children always put on a play for their grandparents. Every year they act out the story of the Nativity. They do the whole production themselves, the costumes, directing, picking parts, they want the whole play to be a surprise for the whole family. It makes me cry every year! Thanks for the giveaway. adriennecorvetteamerica@yahoo.com

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  16. My favorite Advent traditions are tied between speculaas cookies for St. Nick and praying the O Antiphons.

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  17. St. Lucia day with cinnamon rolls is a favorite Advent tradition as well as the girls coloring their Jesse Tree ornaments by the light of the Advent wreath.

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  18. A favorite? I'm not sure I can pick! I love Advent! I especially love celebrating the Feast of St. Lucy and the O Antiphons. I would love to win the apron, but if I don't it might be time for me to order one of them. God bless!

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  19. I do love the advent season. My favorite is our Mary star path, similar to Nikki's, but we put stars down for Mary and Joseph to follow and each night put the next star up on the night sky. I just love it.

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  20. With a house full of little children, there is such excitement in the simplest things that we do to keep the focus on Christ at Christmas. We have a little Jesse Tree to which we add an ornament each evening. We have a felt Advent Calendar where we add a new character to the Nativity Scene each day. We light the Advent Wreath lights at dinner as we sing "O Come Emmanuel". Our kids take turns with these things & look forward to it each day!

    Beautiful apron! Thanks for the opportunity to enter. God bless!

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  21. I love lighting the Advent Candles and putting the lights on the Christmas tree. It is our 1st year with our Christmas Miracle Baby who was born last December 26, 2011 so I am excited to share her 1st Christmas!

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  22. I love everything about Advent and Christmas!

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  23. I love your apron! My little ones LOVE opening their advent calendar and seeing who is behind the door (it's magnetic with the Bethlehem scene). This year I'm starting a Jesse Tree and am excited about that! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  24. I like singing when we light the Advent wreath at dinner; and celebrating St Nicholas with our children. I'd like to add St Lucia this year, as our only daughter will be 5 and I think she would enjoy it.

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  25. Not sure if you'll post to Australia.. but if so, our favourite tradition, which we started when our first was a babe, is to place a straw in the Christ Child's manger for each good deed done:)

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  26. I love everything about Advent. Our Advent wreath, our Jesse Tree, and celebrating the feast days of St. Nicholas and St. Lucia (to name a few)!

    RMann
    ryashiki@hotmail.com

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  27. One of my favorite traditions is the kids opening the doors on our Advent box to take out pieces for two of their nativities (one is a felt board nativity and the other is a small moulded plastic one) to decorate a little corner in our kitchen. They get so excited and can't wait for their turn. It's a more holy alternative to the chocolate versions.

    My other favorite is St Nicholas Day, the kids receive candy canes and usually a little chocolate in their shoes. They also receive a big gift that they must give away. (like toys for Toys for Tots, or money to buy something for a charity). They spend the day making gifts for the family and friends and deciding what to do with their gift. It really helps us focus on the reason for the season.
    Thank you for this contest.

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  28. My favorite tradition is putting out the nativity display with the crib empty until Christmas eve night/Christmas morning when we get back from Mass.
    http://stuartsstudy.blogspot.com

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  29. We have many much loved Advent traditions in my family, but my personal favorite has to be saying the St. Andrew chaplet every day throughout the season starting on his feast day, Nov. 30th.

    Please enter me into this lovely giveaway. I have a few of your aprons and just love them. Thank you!

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  30. This is a beautiful apron! Thank you for the offer!

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  31. Our favorite Advent tradition is difficult to narrow, but I think our favorite is an advent chain. Like a countdown to Christmas, we have one circle for each day of Advent. On each circle I write something diiferent for each day. Sometimes it's a prayer to say, a kind deed to do, or a family avtivity. The kids take a ring off each morning to find out the day's surprise. The apron is lovely!
    cqmac@msn.com

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  32. What a beautiful apron! I added the aprons to my Christmas wishlist, just in case I don't win the giveaway:) Advent is such a beautiful season, one we didn't really celebrate growing up. I am getting new ideas each year to bring this season to life, but our favorite so far is doing an Advent Tree.

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  33. I made a Jesse tree for my family this year--here's hoping it becomes our new favorite tradition!

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  34. There are so many wonderful feasts to celebrate within the Advent season, but for our family to pick two favorites, these have to be St. Nicholas Feast day, a tradition of Dutch descent on my husband's side, and St. Lucia with fully dressed daughters, and sweet buns. Love your aprons! Love all your products come to think of it. :) (I also agree that the Jesse tree has to be the longest standing tradition for our family though, such rich symbolism and beautiful reminders on Salvation history.)

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  35. My favorite tradition would be the Novena to the Divine Infant King ending on Christmas!

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