The Story Garden with Mrs. Sandoz

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and even though we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet, the truth is that before Thanksgiving is the time to start prepping for the Advent season. Especially since this year it begins on Sunday, December 1st—just a couple of days after Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I tend to forget about preparing for Advent. Do yourself a favor this year: sit down now and gather whatever you need to prepare your family for the greatest story of them all—the Christmas story! Don’t make it elaborate. Think simple. Choose something you can do easily every day. Something that won’t take you hours to put together. This is what my family does. We read an Advent storybook every night. This year, it is Tabitha’s Travels . This story is so good that it really could be the only thing we do for Advent. It is full of suspense, wonder, action, and heart challenge. It has something for all ages.  However, it can be a little intense for younge...

Maybe she can?   Maybe she can’t?   That is the question that May B. has to answer for herself while stranded on the Kansas prairie alone and abandoned until Christmas.   Can she grow past her fears and insecurities and find it in herself to overcome? May B. A Novel by Caroline Starr Rose is a true healing story.   Its raw, awkward, and uncomfortable rhythm mimics the main character. Yet the more I read it to my boys the more freely the words ebbed and flowed from me.     Just like the Kansas prairie in the 1870’s this story is sparse and simple requiring commitment to get past the first half of the book before the reward of hard work and a good story pulls you in.   The beauty of this book is the way Rose develops May B. throughout the story mirroring her internal struggle to read with her external struggle to survive.   Sometimes a bad situation often does make a person better.   This story offered me and my boys plenty of oppo...

We have started Advent in our house.  This is always a time filled with a lot of excitement.  I have to remind myself that the Things are only acting up because they are excited and not because they are purposefully trying to exhaust me. I have come to love our Advent season.  We have several key things that make it rich for our family.  It has taken a few years to hammer this out.  We've tried somethings that have failed to jive with us so we just threw them out and have only stuck with the things that work.  Here is a glimps of one of those things. Our Advent Sock Story Garland I think originally I saw this in a Martha Stewart magezine but since then I have definately seen it on Pintrest.  I love it!  I love how fun and festive it looks and I love that it's easy and that I made it. I think it works well with our decorations and it is so versitle. We do not put candy in our garland, although you could, instead we use it to tell the N...

The first Advent Sunday is only a week away.  If you haven't done so already now is the time to start preparing for this special time of putting flesh on Christ.  Today, in our Quaker meeting house, I shared a story I wrote about a personal experience I had with the Incarnation of Christ to help transition us into the Advent season.  I'm sharing it with you all below.   Enjoy! Kristen A Window By Kristen S. Sandoz     It was a dry, hot, African day.   I was headed to a birthday party with my African friends in the up-country of Kenya.   I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing my Levis so I put on the only skirt I had and a coordinating blue T-shirt.   I gave it a second thought and decided to don a necklace with a praying hands pendant, hoping I could dress up my humble outfit with one of the few pieces of jewelry I had brought.   There wasn’t much improvement but I had tried.   Once we reached N...

Today I am sharing, for the first time I might add, a story I have written.  I'm a little nervous about this.  It feels super vulnerable. So be kind to me :)  It's a story for St. Nicholas Day, which is tomorrow.  If you do nothing else for this day at least read this story.   Oh!  I've added a "Print Friendly" button to the bottom of my posts so you can print this story out and read it more easily to your Littles and Bigs. I love the imagination that St. Nick brings to children.  The stories around him are full of fantasy and mystery.  They create an opportunity to ponder the Mystery of Christ and the inner workings of our hearts.  I tell this story, "St. Nick and The Sausage Machine", on St. Nicholas Eve in anticipation of his visit the next morning.  And let me tell you it's a gripping story.  My boys are on the edge of their seats every time!  Then afterwards we sprinkle special magical glitter dust on our doorste...

Okay friends, I have a confession to make.  Santa doesn’t come to my family’s house.  Well, at least not on Christmas day.  No, we think Santa is special enough to have his very own day!  December 6 th .  It’s the first thing my family changed when we started to revive our Advent season.  After reading Gertrud Mueller Nelson’s book “To Dance with God” I fell in love with St. Nicholas, AKA, Santa Clause.  St. Nick is a type of Christ.  If you use him properly he can point wonderfully to Christ on Christmas.  Much like John the Baptist did for Christ on Easter.  If you want to know more about Santa Clause here is a site called, St. Nicholas Center: discovering the truth about Santa Claus , that Gertrud Mueller Nelson herself directed me to.  Ms. Nelson said she has a play about the very same story I'm going to share in my next post on this site.  Of course you should read Gertrud Mueller Nelson’s book.  It is very inspirin...

So it begins!  The most anticipated time of the year, the Advent season.  I love this time of year!  But I just hate that last stressful crunch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It leaves me distracted, tired and completely unprepared for the Promise of Christ.  It leaves me no room for the contemplation that should happen during that time, during Advent. Four years ago my good friend, Kim, introduced me to a book that revolutionized my families Advent season.  It’s called “To Dance with God” by Gertrud Mueller Nelson and published by the Paulist Press .   If you want to truly have more meaning in your Advent and Christmas season this book is a must read.  Admittedly, you should start on Advent preparation way before the first day of Advent, which happens to be November 27 th this year.  However, don’t be daunted.  Use reading this book as your own personal Advent this year.  Don’t be tempted to add anything to your Ad...

The Advent season is my very favorite.  After all it is preparing us for Christ's birth on Christmas day.  Instead of the typical countdown advent calendar why don't you try something different this year?  How about a count down using stories? Two years ago my sister-in-law gave us Jotham's Journey: an advent story book .  It has become one of our families most favorite Advent activity.  It has all that a child could want.  Adventure, love, mystery, suspense, and a happy ending.  Here is the Amazon description of the book. "In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem."  The best part is there are at least two other Advent story books to follow this one.  By the t...