Hope has Come~ A Review and Giveaway!

A recurring theme for me this year as I entered this holiday season has been that Hope has indeed entered the world. There is such Light and Hope that awaits us as we anticipate the birth of Jesus. Seeing all the anticipation and excitement through the eyes of my littles is so much fun, but it also reminds me that we have such responsibility to teach them about how Jesus came. I was thrilled when I saw the Love Came Down collection from Dayspring and was even more excited when I was given the chance to review a piece from that collection. I immediately selected the Felt Advent Calendar. I had been wanting one of these to use with the littles, and this year is the perfect storm~ we have a lovely place for such a thing, but more importantly, they are at ages when they can both learn and appreciate these days that lead up to celebrating Jesus' birth.

I found a place for our calendar on the wall next to our Jesse Tree. (If you've been around for a while, you know I take the world's worst pictures, but here's a small shot...)

We've been using the Jesse Tree Advent Family Devotional from Ann Voskamp, and while a lot of the material is pretty deep for my 5 and 3 year olds, I have loved building the anticipation and talking about the line of people that led up to Jesus in his family tree. On Sunday we were singing the bridge to a song that repeats 'You make all things work together for our good', and I couldn't help but make it tie in to our Jesse tree. God used an amazing (and somewhat shady) group of people to lead to His coming King. Love Came Down. And if He can use those folks, He certainly can use us!

Okay, so I'm rambling... sorry. But I do love this advent calendar! Every morning my littles ask whose turn it is to move the sweet felt heart to its new pocket. Remy loves that he can tell what day it is, and every day he and Halle count the days until Jesus' Birthday. And here's the best part of this for you~ The lovely folks at (in)courage & Dayspring (who sent me this product to review) have given me a $20 gift to give away to one lucky reader to use on their own selection from Dayspring.com. Have you been to their online shop before? They have tons of great inspirational books, gifts, things for your home... I got my holiday cards there this year.

All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment telling me your favorite tradition about the holidays and why. I seriously think that this sweet calendar is going to be one of my favorite things in years to come!! I will leave the comments open until 8am Monday morning, when I will select a random winner. Happy Commenting!

**The fine print... (in)courage and Dayspring sent me this product free of charge to review in my home. The opinions expressed are only mine.**

*** Commenting is closed! The winner is Jenny V. Congrats! I'll contact you about your gift! ***