The anticipation is building…Christmas will be here before we know it! How are your Advent readings coming along? We’ve had such a hard time getting our two-year-old to be quiet to hear the story. Carmen suggested letting the younger kids color while my husband reads.

We’re really enjoying Jotham’s Journey (remember that book I mentioned by Arnold Ytreeide?) A friend came down and borrowed Book 2 of his Advent trilogy for her family, Bartholomew’s Passage. And my other neighbor is using Tabitha’s Travels with her children, which is Book 3. These books really bring the story of traveling to Bethlehem to life.

I want to take a minute and welcome all of you who’ve come in here to read Mom 2 Mom Connection because of the Weblog Awards going on right now. Thank you! When I asked Lisa to design my site like an international cafe, I really was only imagining sharing a cup of coffee with my handful of friends from Japan and the Philippines. But because of this contest, you’re coming in here from 31 countries.

Here’s where you’re visiting my site from the past few days:
the U.S., Japan, European Union, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Guam, Canada, Singapore, Great Britain, Germany, China, the Netherlands, Israel, France, India, Denmark, Finland, South Africa, Taiwan, Norway, Malaysia, Iceland, Austria, Bermuda, Thailand, Estonia, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, the Philippines, and a few unknown.

I would love to know what customs and traditions you all have going on right now in your countries during this season of Advent. Here is a mom, Kathy, who has taken the time to create a beautiful website page of her family’s Christmas traditions. What a great idea. I think I’ve mentioned to you that we have an Advent wreath and candles, which we’re lighting as we read the Jotham’s Journey book and devotions. We also pulled out another one of my favorite Christmas books last night, One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham.

The illustrations by Richard Jesse Watson are truly exquisite. One Wintry Night is the story of a boy who gets lost in a snowstorm and ends up with a sprained ankle at the cabin his grandfather helped build. The woman who lives there now takes him in and offers him a warm, cozy place to recuperate. She tells him the story of Christmas, which really begins when God created the earth. Then she takes him throughout several highlights of the Old and New Testaments, including the birth of Christ.

I can’t tell you how beautiful Mary, the mother of Jesus, is in these pictures! I sometimes forget how young she was — only a teenager! And if you love cats, you’ll adore the beautiful paintings of the gray-striped tabby throughout the book. I’m not at all good at drawing, but I plan on sitting down with my five-year-old and copying some of these pictures with her crayons. As we read last night, she kept saying, “Look at that kitty cat! I want to draw that kitty cat.”

And the lions — I’m noticing lions more everywhere! Are you? In the Christmas tree illustrations, the artist has drawn an ornament of a lion and lamb together, which are both symbols of Jesus. There’s also a beautiful full-page illustration of a lion as the woman tells the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den.

Now we have only two more days, for those of us who are counting the hours until “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” comes to the big screen. And we’ll finally get to see how Walden Media and Disney portray our beloved Aslan. You know, a couple of days ago, I gave you a link to a USA Today newspaper article, Is That Lion the King of Kings? And I quoted Bruce Edwards, professor of English at Bowling Green University in Ohio and author of the newly released, Not a Tame Lion (Tyndale House).

I got an email yesterday from Dr. Edwards, who thanked me for quoting him and told me some very reassuring news. I’d heard on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast that children under age nine might be too scared to see this movie, but Dr. Edwards says:

I would not hesitate to take your under-9 children to the movie, which I saw in its entirety last week. I will be posting my review on the BLOG site [below] at midnight Thursday.

Dr. Edwards says he blogs about Lewis and other news. So, let’s dash on over there at midnight and see what he has to say! (or maybe we should wait and see the movie first.)

And here’s another good article offering more insight by Mike Parker on Crosswalk.com: Deep Magic in C.S. Lewis’ Land of Narnia.

That’s all for today — except I have to remind you to be sure and VOTE HERE for Mom 2 Mom Connection in the Best Blog Design category in the Weblog Awards. Thank you to those who voted for my site yesterday — we’re still in the running, that’s for sure! Don’t forget — you can vote once every 24 hours until December 15.

I wish you all a blessed day, and I really would love to hear from you about what you’re doing to celebrate Advent. You comments will be read by people in over 30 different countries!

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat will be at peace. Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them all.
Isaiah 11:6 (NLT)