CHRISTmas

In light of my previous post about what I desire my true focus to be at Christmas, I want to share ten of our special family traditions (some old and some new). Is there a way to make worldly traditions Christ centered and glorifying to Him? hmmm... I think so and I hope that we do. I'll try to post a couple traditions a day, if time permits.

1) Decorating

It's our tradition to decorate our house the weekend after Thanksgiving. My husband loves this. I have grown to love it too. I particularly enjoy seeing the delight in the boys faces as it gets dark and the lights are shining bright. We've been blessed with help from my parents over the last several years. They are very hard workers and we really appreciate them. This year we added wreaths to our windows after I snagged them on sale. It's silly how much joy they have brought me. Decorating is one of those worldly traditions that I hope can somehow glorify Him.

We had wonderful warm decorating weather. 

Worth much more then his tag of $14.97! (The cutest tree on the racks!)

This cracked me up. The boys decided to wear the skirt intended for the tree.  

They twirled with pure delight. Each boy took a turn twirling in the tree skirt. 

I am so thankful for Luke's sincere joy in helping to decorate. 

He takes after his Daddy in his love of Christmas decorations. 

2. Jesse Tree

Last year was the first time I had heard about a Jesse Tree and we decided it was a great addition to our Christmas traditions. Basically, we read passages in the Bible each day that weave together the story of Christ and add an ornament to our tree that goes along with the theme of each passage. We decided to make our Jesse Tree from felt and re-use it yearly.  The boys colored the ornaments, which I then laminated and attached some velcro. However, you can keep it simple and use the templates and packet found here. It's a little different from my version but basically the same. We all look forward to this each evening.