Anchor Lincoln Advent Calendar 2025

While there’s no official way to observe the Advent season, traditionally each week’s candle is associated with a different word: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

Hope: All around the world there is darkness. There is only one light that is bright enough to give us hope and that is Jesus. He will never be overtaken by the darkness and His light will never go out.

Peace: We were enslaved by our own sinful selfish desires. Jesus has broken our chains and given us His peace and freedom.

Love: There is no love greater than this, that while we were still entangled in our own sin Jesus showed us His sacrificial love by giving up his life for us so we could be free.

Joy: We who have lived in a darkness of our own making know what it feels like to have Jesus set us free. There is no greater feeling than this pure joy. No one can take this away in our lives, as it shines brighter than the sun.

After Cindi Bates painted her “Hope” picture to mark the first Sunday of Advent, she felt inspired to capture the essence of the other three words. But she did not go with more predictable images you’d associate with them.

Take a moment to download the paintings. What do you notice? How does the unexpectedness of the images expand your thinking on Advent?

If you could paint a picture for one of those words, which would you choose? What would you paint?

Printable Advent Words

Growing up my mother loved to listen to classical music. So each Christmas we listened to Handel’s Messiah, which is a story choir concert/play (called an Oratorio) that retells Jesus’ whole life through sung scripture ending with the Hallelujah chorus which celebrates His resurrection.

There is one song in this compilation of songs that has the words repeated “We like sheep”. When I discovered this song, I fell in love with it because I thought it was hilarious and also I love sheep because this animal has some relatable behaviors. They are herd animals so very dependent on their buddies, they have a warm wool coat, so probably always cold without it and they have to be checked on everyday. This is because they can actually stick their head through a fence to eat some grass then actually die there because they cannot figure out how to get their head back out. Relatable. I know.

Thus, in this Christmas season, as we have gratitude for God sending His son Jesus to save us from our potentially self-harming behaviors, remember we are all like sheep that have gone astray. You are not alone. 

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

God has allowed us free will to make choices and many of those choices have led to sin. God in turn, sent His son and placed our sin upon Jesus to carry our burden. 

A note about the painting, my mother has been teaching me how to watercolor paint. I am so thankful for my mom who helped make me the person I am today.

This year, our family started a small Jesse Tree with a few simple symbols to help us slow down
and remember that Christmas didn’t begin in Bethlehem. It began in Genesis. The Jesse Tree
helps us trace the story of God’s promise through the Old Testament, all the way to Jesus.

The name comes from Isaiah 11:1:
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

Jesse was King David’s father, and God promised that a forever King would come through
David’s family line. Even when Israel’s hope looked cut down to a stump, God was quietly
growing His plan beneath the surface. The Jesse Tree reminds us that the birth of Jesus wasn’t
sudden, it was the fulfillment of a story God had been writing from the very beginning.
We kept things simple this year, choosing just a few ornaments we could make together as a
family. Each one helped us talk about a different part of the story that leads to Christ.

These little ornaments, made with small hands, reminded us that the whole Bible, from Genesis
to the prophets to the manger, is one big story leading to Christ. Our Jesse Tree isn’t perfect,
but that’s part of the beauty of Advent: God works through ordinary families, simple traditions,
and imperfect crafts to draw our hearts back to Him.

Emmanuel — God with us.

During my childhood, making Christmas cookies didn’t involve ingredients like gingerbread or molasses. Making sugar cookies was also a rare occurrence, but Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cookies were always the staple of the season – and my personal favorite. It wasn’t too long until I learned that I could eat more if I helped in the baking process; after all, there needed to be a taste tester! So, I became Grammy Barb’s helper in the kitchen.

It wasn’t until preparing for this advent calendar season that I learned the story of how these came to be a tradition. My Grammy was a school teacher her whole life, and a special one at that. A grateful mom wanted to pay her for teaching her four-year-old son to speak, but my Grandma wouldn’t take payment. So, the mom brought a plate of cookies, and the Chocolate Cherry Kisses were introduced to our family!

Printable Chocolate Cherry Kisses Recipe

Holiday Wishes!

The Mans

Our family began a new Advent tradition as we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son, Theo; who was supposed to be a Christmas baby, but decided that he did not care for the year 2022 and waited until 2023 to meet us instead!

An acquaintance from our former church in Texas wrote a beautiful Advent book called “God is Coming.” We read it every night with our kids before bed, starting on Dec. 1st up until Christmas Day.

Our kids look forward to reading it every night and taking a peek at the next page to see what comes next! It has become a simple tradition that we all love! 

Downloadable version

I asked my mom to send me a picture of the original recipe card for these bars and it was coated with vanilla stains and probably a bit of sticky residue from Karo syrup. The pen had nearly faded the instructions.

These bars have been a family favorite every Christmas. They were originally titled “Jody Bellotte Bars” and then my mom scratched her name out and added “Beverly’s Bars”. And now, I’ve changed it for a third time to “Michele’s bars” as an ode to my mother.

Printable Michele’s Bars Recipe

Happy Advent! I wanted to share a quick story about one of my Stork family’s favorite Christmas traditions.

When my dad was younger, he spent a few years living in Ireland. While there, he purchased what would become a Stork-family Christmas treasure: a beautiful leather sheep collar with little bells on it. Don’t ask me why he purchased it, I don’t think he had aspirations to become a sheep herder? I don’t think he knew then how important those bells would become for his future family.

All throughout my childhood back in Kansas City, Christmas morning began with those bells. First thing on Christmas morning, my dad (well, Santa) would ring them with all his dramatic acting might and call out, “Ho Ho Hooooooo! MERRY CHRISTMAAAAAAAS!” My brother and I would leap out of bed and race down the stairs, hearts pounding with excitement, and jump into his arms. Some years we were already awake, lying in bed and waiting for the sound of Santa’s sleigh bells. Christmas morning, with all its joy and happiness, didn’t truly begin until those bells rang.

As the years went on, my dad faithfully kept the tradition alive, and my brother and I, even into our teens and twenties, kept our end of the deal—sprinting downstairs and shouting about Santa like little kids.

But then, when we hit our thirties, my dad decided we were finally old enough not to believe in Santa anymore. That Christmas morning, there were no sleigh bells, just our alarms. We wandered downstairs feeling a little heartbroken and bah-humbuggy. Christmas felt strangely ordinary. We had a spirited discussion with Dad about the tradition, and he promised that Santa would come out of retirement and never skip the bells again.

Now that my brother has two little boys, it’s become one of our great joys of Christmas to watch their faces light up when Grandpa Santa rings those bells—just like ours did all those years ago.

So, to wrap this up with a festive bow: cherish your family, your loved ones, your quirky traditions, no matter how silly or cheesy they may seem. Dads, maybe invest in some sleigh bells? The holidays fly by far too quickly, kids grow up way too fast, families move apart, and there is never enough hot chocolate to go around. Take the time to truly enjoy your loved ones, connect with your family, and don’t take anything for granted in our short time on earth before we are called home. Those sheep bells started as a silly thing my dad did when I was a toddler, but thirty years later, I can’t imagine Christmas or our family without them.

Happy Advent, and a very Merry Christmas from Dan and Callie Stork!

P.S. Don’t judge our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree in our picture. 

“Art and caring, skill and memory, comfort and nurture, faith and love — it’s all intertwined. Cooking (baking, in this case) matters because people matter. Feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger are signposts of the Christian life. There are countless opportunities and ways to live these out, but learning to cook (bake) is a good place to start.” 

— An excerpt from the book, “Why Everything That Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much,” by Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth

I was blessed to long ago work for the above authors as a young, newly married gal living in Nashville, TN. Andi taught me a lot about what it looks like to serve others, usher in hospitality and love people well. I was also blessed with a mom who showed love and care through her baking. She never went to the dentist, the dry cleaners, the hair dresser and certainly friends houses, without some form of a home baked goody. I think it’s safe to say it was one of her God given gifts.

As a little girl I would wait with great anticipation for my favorite Christmas treat made by my mom…Almond Shortbread Cookies. The crinkly edges that formed from pressing the dough ball down, the light coating of granulated sugar and then the red and green sprinkles that added a bit of joy and wonder. These were the special, magical touches that I’d dream about and wait for each December as a young child. The cookies served as a “marker” if you will, of the joy and anticipation of the season.

Much is rooted in the traditions we practice and honor year after year during this month. Advent by definition marks the season of preparing, waiting and anticipating the celebration of the birth of Jesus. We mark this time with candles, calendars, wreaths, songs, scriptures and yes, sometimes even with special cookies. Each week brings a new focus — hope, peace, joy and love — markers of the One who came to save the world. May these markers of Christ blanket our world and us, as we anticipate His coming. 

Whatever traditions you practice as we wait, I pray this season finds you filled with great excitement for the day the whole world was forever changed by the arrival of a little baby boy.

Almond Cookie Recipe

Children’s nativity plays are notorious for their unexpected mishaps that make them memorable. But every once in a while, the surprises themselves serve as powerful reminders of the message of Christmas and who God is.

Watch this video for a childhood recollection from Karin Peabody that offers us a profound picture of our Good Shepherd.

Although this recipe is not an old family recipe, it has quickly become a new favorite of my family’s the last few years. I like making a lot of Christmas cookies every year so I always have something to bring to parties but also to pass out to neighbors and friends. This recipe makes a large batch which is perfect for that. The cookies are soft but have some spice (the ginger type) that make them my favorite gingerbread cookies that I’ve had. 

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Acts 2:46-47 NIV

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.