From the Stump of Jesse

When we decided to homeschool and our school year just kind of organically fell so that we began a new grade in January and ended that same grade at the end of the calendar year, I decided that rather than spend all of December laying around being slugs (tempting as that sounds, am I right?), we should do something to focus on WHY we even celebrate Christmas in the first place.  

(Obviously, the presents.)

All joking aside, I already knew about the Confessions of a Homeschooler web site and its creator, Erica. (If you aren't familiar and homeschooling has even remotely crossed your mind, stop reading right now and go browse her stuff but don't forget to come back and finish what you started here, k?). She has so many fantastic FREE teaching ideas and activities as well as links to holiday activities and advent plans and the one that caught my attention was the idea of doing a Jesse tree with my girls.  

The idea is simple and springs from the scripture in Isaiah 11: 1-2 which says, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him."  From her Jesse tree reading plan, she goes on to say:

"The main branch is a Biblical sign of the expected coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ and the faithfulness of God.  The other branches of the tree represent each of the stories that make up the whole story of God's relationship with His people.  As we read through the stories we see God's people awaiting the coming of the Messiah.  Similarly, we anxiously await each day of December in anticipation of celebrating the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ."

A Jesse tree is similar to an advent calendar as you count down the days to the birth of Christ.  Each day, there is a bible story to read in scripture and an accompanying ornament with a symbol representing the story that we hang on a tabletop tree.

Here's where it gets good, you guys.  I did this last year but used paper ornaments that fell apart before we even made it to Christmas Day.  So.  I put on my big girl boots, grabbed a freaking SAW from Rob's shop, and marched my handy self way out to the tree line on the perimeter of our property.  My sister had gone out there a few weeks prior to cut some birch for Christmas ornaments and I knew it would be perfect to do the same for our Jesse tree.  Then to solidify my official status as Country Girl, I anchored the branch in a vise, marked it off in 1" increments, and began sawing until I had 25 (one more than I needed in case I screwed up a drawing, which I did) perfectly shaped little disks.  And it gets better!  I got out Rob's power sander and sanded those bad boys smooth.  

I mean, come on.  First I move to the country and now I'm using saws and sanders.   

I had to dry them out so my sister said to put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper at 250 degrees for 90 minutes.  They were perfect and ready to paint except I ditched the paint idea and just sketched the drawings with a pencil and then outlined them with fine point Sharpies and they turned out even better.  Take a look for yourself:

I know, I know: My artwork is stunning

Obviously these needed to hang from a ribbon, so Rob showed me his drill bits (which is exactly what she said) (literally can not help it--that phrase was meant to be used in this capacity) and I drilled holes at the top of each disk so I could thread them.  At that point, I threw them in a Christmas tin and each evening we grabbed the appropriate ornament out so one of the girls could hang it on our Jesse tree.  This will also be the most convenient way to store them in our Christmas decoration tote until next year.

Here's the daily devotional schedule and accompanying storybook suggested from Confessions:

And finally, after 24 days of reading and hanging and hanging and reading, I present to you our finished Jesse tree:

I will NOT evenly space the ornaments (I want to so badly)

And there you have it!  It didn't take much time at all to make the ornaments and I may or may not have enjoyed myself (#notusuallycrafty). The girls really liked hearing stories from the Bible and tracing the lineage of Christ, plus it really gave us all something to focus on above and beyond gift-giving and all the other commercial aspects the holidays bring.  I wasn't expecting our Jesse tree time each evening to be as peaceful and comforting as it turned out to be (even though wiggling and squirming kids was part of that routine).  I'll be sad when we pack up all the decorations in a few days but it will be something to look forward to doing again next Christmas.