We have really enjoyed our time together as we have been preparing for Christmas. And I don't mean buying gifts and making cookies. We haven't even started any kind of shopping or baking. That will come in time.
We are trying to spend a little time each day doing family devotions in the evening as we celebrate advent. We read our verses and short devotional and light the candle. Like any busy family, we miss a day here and there, but we make it up when we can. It is nice to have a purposeful time each day to focus on God and His word.
This is our second week of Advent, and our family celebration night included family time at home watching an old Christmas movie. The girls are not feeling great so a night hanging out at home was just perfect. We watched the old Christmas In Connecticut movie (a favorite of mine).
We have also been working on making a Jesse Tree. Also a way to count down the days for Christmas, but with visual pictures that help retell the story of the Bible. We have not done a Jesse Tree before, so I googled some ideas and decided to print some pictures and use the verses from this site HERE. I was trying to do this in an easy way rather than "make" our own ornaments with felt or sewing, I just printed them and the girls made a tree on paper. I have the ability to make things more difficult for myself so I was determined to make this easy for all of us.
Each day we put an other ornament on the tree that represents different parts of the history of Christ and the Bible. We were a little behind so we have done more than one ornament a day, trying to catch up.
Maybe it is the educator inside of me that LOVES things like this. This is such a great way to have the kids learn Biblical history. Tristen pointed out how it is all connected and part of one big story.
Right now our kitchen door is displaying this tool we are using to learn more about God and His history.I love being purposeful and spending our time on things that we find a lot of value in. If the Jesse tree works well for us, I might make some cute ornaments out of felt for next year. You know...in my spare time. =)
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