Chrys and Mike’s World

Behold the box containing all of our Jesse Tree ornaments!  I’m so excited.

A few weeks ago I wrote about doing a Jesse Tree this Advent season.  It was my goal to knock out this project while we are home for Thanksgiving.  I was torn because I really wanted Oliver to be part of creating the Jesse Tree ornaments, but at age three he’s obviously limited in his artistic abilities.  I wanted the ornaments to look nice and knew there were some we could buy but others would definitely need to be handmade.  So, we set out this Black Friday and hit the sales.   I was a bit overwhelmed but Mom led the way and kept me focused.  We came home with bags of ornaments and craft supplies, then enlisted the help of each of our family members.  Everyone pitched in and we really had a ball.  There was drilling, sawing, cutting, drawing, fact-checking, brainstorming, scripture reading, flower arranging, gluing, stone gathering, picture taking and kid wrangling.

Truett helped.  And spied on us.

And wanted to hear Bible stories:

We needed a jar of oil for David’s anointing.  PawPaw was resourceful with printer ink in a glass jar from the miniature section of Hobby Lobby:

RoDaddy & Jordan read books to Oliver:

But Oliver helped some, too.  His trucks helped load and unload some of the finished products.

T-Bird checked our facts:

Once we finished the ornaments we wrapped each one in tissue paper and added a sticker with the date on which the ornament will be opened.  They are packed neatly away and ready for November 30th when we begin!

Thank you, family, for all your help.  It turned out to be a big project and I know it’s going to be treasured by our children for years to come.  I love that everyone contributed to it!

I’ll be posting lots about this, so stay tuned.

Chrys

P.S.  If you are interested in doing a Jesse Tree but this is overwhelming to you, please know that it doesn’t have to be this complex!  At all!  I just like this kind of stuff.  And I had a ton of help!  I would really encourage you to try it with your kiddos–you can print off these pictures for them to color and hang on a tree each day, then use the devotional found here.

Chrys

Truett climbed up onto the coffee table tonight while we were watching the A&M/UT game (boo hiss).  Oh, who am I kidding?  I know nothing about football and couldn’t care less.  I was perusing the Black Friday circulars.  Anyway, Mike had the camera in hand and snapped this pic of Truett from below the table.  It then became very funny.

You think I’m cute, do you?  Watch this!

The end.

Chrys

So thankful.

Chrys

Chrys

Chrys