Jesse Tree Update

Here's a little update on how our Jesse Tree is going. We took some branches from our backyard to make the "tree." I decided to buy the e-book by Ann Voskamp called The Glorious Coming. It is very beautifully written, but it honestly hasn't worked very well for our family. We have ended up using the scripture references for each day and skipped the rest. Each day has the scripture for the day and a personal reflection on that particular passage. And again, it's very beautifully done, it just does not seem to work for our small kids. The book came with printable ornaments that I love! We just printed them out on card stock, punched a hole in them and used some ribbon to hang them. It's been such a meaningful experience to sit together as a family each night and watch the story of the Bible unfold. I definitely want to keep this as a Christmas tradition for our family, but I think I'll tweak it a bit next year. I think I'll look at some other sources for the Bible reading list, since they do seem to vary a little and decide what I feel is the best progression through the different Bible stories. I really love the artwork for these ornaments but I would like to make our own at some point. And, it might be nice to tie it in to our advent calendar somehow too. It's been feeling a bit much to have the advent stockings and the Jesse Tree every day in December.

*****

Today I'm grateful that we unearthed our iced tea maker. ;) I forgot that we bought a box of caffeinated tea and it's helping with the caffeine issue. However, since I've turned the thermostat waaayyy down, we probably should be drinking hot tea.