For the last four years, each night during Advent we take a few minutes to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas using the Jesse Tree.
The Jesse Tree represents the family tree of Jesus. It tells the story of God's salvation, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit." Each night after dinner we read the daily scripture, talk about what it means and hang the day's ornament on our Jesse Tree. We use this guide for our daily devotional. I also used the drawings on that site for templates to create our ornaments out of white felt, gold glitter paint and gold cording. There are also ready-made sets out there if you are interested in starting this tradition but don't want to make all the ornaments. I truly can’t say enough good things about starting this tradition with the littles. We keep our little Jesse tree in their playroom.
On a more whimsical note, our friendly elf Scout visits each day. He always pops up in a new place… some silly and some that were thought up just in the nick of time. This is a prime example of what goes on when Honey is in charge. The littles predictably find his mornings much more hysterical than mine.
Scout uses our Pottery Barn advent tree to bring one piece from the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar (this was a huge hit last year too) and also includes a slip of paper with a family activity for the day. On the days when we already have something planned (a birthday party, a school thing, play date or holiday event), that is what is used for the activity. We fill in between with things like pancake breakfasts, hot chocolates, baking cookies, game nights, movie nights, and the like.
Honey and I love to celebrate the season as much as the littles. It IS the most wonderful time of the year!
xoxo
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