jesse tree

Advent is nearly upon us and in place of the standard store-bought Disney-branded advent calendar we're going to do a Jesse tree again.

We did this last year too, but it would appear that I completely didn't blog about it! How about that.

From one of the numerous sites about Jesse trees

The Jesse Tree is a centuries-old family Advent devotion that has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in recent years. It has particular value since it helps both kids and adults alike to locate Jesus, the Messiah, within the lineage of the shepherd boy who became King of Israel--David, son of Jesse.

The whole idea of the Jesse Tree comes right out of a classic Advent passage from the prophet Isaiah: "A shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit" (Isaiah 11:1). The Jesse Tree is hung with ornaments representing Old Testament people and events and lead up to Jesus. The traditional symbols hung on the tree are based on the genealogy of Jesus as reccounted by the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew.

A selection of sites about Jesse trees, including some where you can just download and print out the various symbols:
Jesse Tree-an Advent Tradition
Download Jesse Tree Ornaments
Jesse Tree Advent Custom
Jesse Tree Instructions
Making a Jesse Tree

We're planning to bake our ornaments out of gingerbread-man dough and hang them on a branch. Only time will tell if we're actually organised enough to do this! :) The first baking day will be tomorrow, and we'll do a week's worth each Saturday. Worth a shot.

Read more...

advent conspiracy

Spend less. Give more. Be free. Read more...

Christmas is a-coming. Are you ready?

Before you start hyper-ventilating at the thought of organising for Christmas so soon, give it some thought. The more you do now, the less you have to do later - and the less you have to do at any one time.

Check out Flylady's Cruising Through the Holidays links - especially the clutter free gift ideas (scroll down the page a bit). These are wonderful. Anything to stem the tide of plastic junk that seems to wash through our house from who knows where.

Most of the clutter free gift ideas boil down to
- something to eat
- tickets to something
- a service or a voucher for a service (like a lawnmower service and sharpen, or 2 hours at a day spa for example)

To add to this, I'd like to suggest looking at Tear Fund's christmas catalogue - a shopping experience with a difference. What you do is buy a goat or a well or a packet of seeds etc. This gets donated to one of Tear Fund's projects. What you get in return is a gift-card with a picture of the thing you just bought (without mentioning how much it cost) so you can give that card to someone else. We did this for our siblings last Christmas - they are the proud 'owners' of some arable land somewhere in India I think.

We give 'proper' gifts for birthdays. For Christmas it's more about saying "hey, we love you and are thinking of you". This helps keep the focus off the toys and presents and on to Christ - who is the whole reason for Christmas after all. Read more...