In order to downplay the arrival of Santa Claus and highlight the arrival of baby Jesus, we made an advent wreath and are participating in daily devotionals focusing on and anticipating the birth of Jesus. We light the appropriate candle before dinner and read the devotional during dinner. Halleigh enjoys the candle and mildly pays attention... the highlight being that she gets to blow out the candle at the end of the meal.

We knew that if we wanted to make Santa Claus a Christmas side note we had to make a big deal of advent and Jesus. Other plans include an advent calendar and a Jesse Tree, although I am still not done with that... maybe next year.

What do you do to highlight Jesus this time of year?

So hi ya'll... I know you thought I had died or something, but low and behold, here I am.

Beau is 7 months, Halleigh is now 3, I have been in Utah for the past 21 days, and we are trying to buy a house. Whew, things have been crazy around here.

Miles tells me that blogging begets blogging, so here is to a new start... wish me luck!

p.s. I promise the posts will get better :)

Halleigh is going to be a black cat.  I haven't started the costume... I am a slacker, I know. I just can't make myself do it. I am feeling totally uninspired to make this stupid costume. UGH!

I just had to tell someone...

Here are the next two ornaments fromt the Jesse Tree project; the tent and the ark.  Four down, twenty-one to go.

I love Christmas. As a kid we had an advent calendar for a while, and it seems like a couple years we had those cardboard ones that each day you opened the door and got a piece of chocolate out.

I have wanted to make a advent calendar for a long time, and now that Halleigh is going to start to remember traditions, I thought that it is time to start some.  I like the idea of placing the focus of Christmas more on Jesus and less on presents and Santa. What better way to do that than to celebrate the advent season daily. So that is what we are going to do... with a twist.

So, my friend and fellow blogger, Erin has wanted to make a Jesse Tree, and she suggested that I look into making one as well. I had never even heard of a Jesse Tree, so I did a little research, starting with Wikipedia, and here is what I found...

The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots."  It is a vehicle to tell the Story of God in the Old Testament, and to connect the Advent Season with the faithfulness of God across 4,000 years of history. Basically, it ties the Old and New Testaments together. Each day there is an ornament that represents the lineage of Jesus, starting with creation, the fall (Adam), the flood (Noah), followed by Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, etc. 

I like the idea of the advent calendar, but I LOVE the idea of the Jesse tree. Not enough importance is placed on the Old Testament telling the story of Jesus.  I want my children to understand that the Old Testament speaks to us and is as relevant to us as the New Testament. It isn't just a collection of great children's stories! And what better way to teach that than to combine the Old Testament in the preparation and celebration of Christ's birth? There is none.

Anyway, so Erin and I have started our Jesse Trees. We got the first two done, creation and the fall. Here are the pictures of our finished products...

If you want to try this out, follow the directions below, and let me know! We can compare out mosaics!

Type your answer to each of the questions below into flikr search. Using only the first page of returned images, choose your favorite and copy-&-paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name