let's talk Christmas / Jesse Tree

i know we just got through with Easter, but I came home from our lovely trip to Santa Barbara - (pics and post to come...dont worry mom) - and i found these sweet little guys waiting for me! how exciting! last year one of the associate pastors at our church spoke to our MOPs group about The Jesse Tree. apparently a lot of people already knew about this concept...i had not...he spoke a little into the Advent season, so it was probably a little late for it last year, but it was perfect to plan for 2010.

Basically the Jesse Tree is a way to celebrate every day in the advent - a way to teach your kids the story of the Bible through Advent that starts at creation and ends with Christ's birth and death on the cross. What i love about it is that it can be as long or as short as your family needs- it can be as simple as hanging one ornament a day and reading a Bible verse that goes along with it, or it can be a 30 minute long Bible study and family sing-a-long special Advent time. You can read more about it here and here.

a mom in our group told about this family that hand makes all the ornaments (there are usually 25 of them) for the tree and i knew that A) i would not be making them myself because holidays are nutzoid craft time for me and B) i needed to order them then because they take a while for them to do and C) i want to support any family handmade movement...how cute is that! but...i just got them and i believe i ordered them on December 10th and they just became ready on March 26th.

so hopefully some of you will be thankful for this very early Christmas post if you are interested in doing it because it does take a bit of preparation. You can either order these handmade ornaments...Here is their website (it also explains the concept of the Jesse Tree). or you can pick up the ornaments that correlate with the Jesse Tree story throughout the year.

i think Bryson is at the perfect age (4) to start something like this, although no age is probably too young to start making this a habit in your house!

i hadn't told Bryson about the Easter Bunny until the night before Easter because i didn't want Easter to become about eggs and candy...and it did become that...its hard to overshadow that...which is why with Christmas i think this is a great daily way to celebrate Advent and start that discussion and carve that time out so that hopefully the amazing story of the Bible overshadows presents and stockings...yes? one can hope anyway...we do our best...



**UPDATE: The family that makes the ornaments is not taking orders at this time due to the death of their father. Please send prayers up to this family (he has 8 children) especially during the holiday season.

I have found another handmade source for Jesse Tree ornaments - you can find it by clicking here