One of my favorite parts about the Christmas season is
Advent - the season of waiting.
My kids and I begin making a Jesse Tree beginning December
1. On the very first day, I cut out a
giant tree from white paper and the children finger-paint the tree green. We
read the assigned Bible passages together each morning at breakfast and
then my children create the ornament with a symbol from the story we read.
I suspect it would be easier to cut the tree out of green paper or to buy one of those beautiful felt trees with the ornate ornaments you can use each year, but (at least for now while they still enjoy it), I love watching them get excited about drawing pictures, coloring them and remembering the stories as we journey through Advent. It is special for me to see their art skills grow and to see what they choose as their symbols for the stories as we read. I have a great book that gives readings for the Jesse Tree as well as prayers for dinnertime – when we light our Advent candles.
The other thing we did this week was to create a stovetop
scent for our neighbors. In paper bags, my oldest put one orange and one lemon;
my youngest put in a cinnamon stick and counted out varying numbers of
cranberries. We folded the top and stapled an instruction card to it. Today we
visited some neighbors (we haven’t gotten to them all yet) and gave them our
Christmas card and the bag. The girls were very excited! We thought it was sort of a
post-Thanksgiving/early Christmas gift – thanking them for being the awesome
neighbors they are and giving them a way to make their home smell a little more
Christmas-y.
In the midst of this season of Christmas and gifts, I want
to help ground my children in the blessings of the season – sharing with
others, being thankful for what we have, being extra kind to friends and remembering
that our precious Jesus was born in a humble stable – but the light He brought
was so bright that it burns still today.
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