Our Jesse Tree (for Advent)

I know...a little out of season, but before I put it away I thought I'd take a picture of it. And then I thought it would make a good blog post, but I'd never remember to post it just before advent '08 so I thought...no time like the present...
So this year for advent (well, actually I guess it was last year) we decorated a Jesse Tree. A Jesse Tree is a tree branch (we used a mini Christmas tree...actually a mini-singing-Christmas tree) decorated with symbols representing the stories of people in Jesus' family tree, and other important persons from the Old Testament. The symbols remind us that our belief grows out of deep roots of thousands of years of ancestors in the faith. Each day you hang a new symbol and read a corresponding Bible passage. You can get as creative as you'd like with the symbols, and there are a variety of web sites that offer Bible passages and/or devotionals.

Here's a link to the one we used... http://www.rca.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=1628&srcid=1602 (or just Google "Jesse Tree" )

What exactly did you think would happen?

Brent and Shannon took the recycling out this morning and declared it "Beautiful" outside; they just had to go for recess right away! Being the evil tyrant I am and not willing to be so easily swayed on this just the 2nd day back after holidays, I insisted that Brent finish his school work first.
He quickly sat down to work then asked, "Mom, my calendar (which is another whole blog post topic) says that spring starts on the 21rst of March. Soooo, (because he never just says "so") why is the snow melting?" Good question...
Once the work was done the 3 of them quickly got dressed and headed outside. 15 minutes later I heard the pitter patter of sloppy boots on the deck, and they all entered declaring "My feet are cold!"
They took off their winter boots. "No wonder! I've got ice cubes in my boots!" Shannon announces. Brent turns his boot upside down and water pours out. Devin declares he has no idea how the water got in! They're boots, aren't they? Great time for discussion on permeable and non-permeable fabrics.
We pulled off all 6 water laden socks, replaced them with nice warm "grandma socks" (of the knitted variety) dug the rubber boots (non-permeable) out of the basement and sent them back out to enjoy the spring weather, in winter.
Like one of my old work mates used to say, "Don't live in Eastern Ontario if you can't take a joke!"

Happy New Year!!!!!