Ahh.... it's THAT day again. The day after Thanksgiving. AKA Black Friday. Whatever thankfulness might have been offered to God yesterday has, for many people, been replaced with greed and a sense of "how can I get the best deal for myself while making sure sure I get exactly what I want". I went day after shopping a few times. NEVER again. People act like if they are not the ones to get the last nose hair trimmer there will never be another one in the world again. Crazy, I tell you.
Our tradition over the last several years is to do Christmas decorating the day after. We stay home, eat turkey leftovers, maybe watch Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer or something. One year I had the bright idea to make cookies. Not a good idea on the same day that we are decorating. Two big messes in one day is just toooooo much.
We are starting a new tradition this year. (well, new for us anyway) It is called a Jesse Tree. We are starting today with making new ornaments, each one representing a specific point from the Bible. Along with our ornament making we are going to have a Bible reading to explain why we are making what we are that day. Most people for a Jesse Tree use a small table-top tree, or a fabric banner, or a pole with branches. When I was first running this idea by Mark, I thought I had done a fairly good idea of describing what a Jesse Tree is. When I go the part of saying i did not what I would use as our "tree" he said "What do you mean? We've got a tree?" So then I had to go back and explain that the "Tree" is more of a vine, like a pole or something. So he has been making fun of me since then saying I want to do away with our tree and put up a Festivus Pole. (for those who are not familiar with Festivus, this is for you)
So we have had a good laugh. We are going to put up our "real Christmas tree" (which is made of plastic so that it is non-allergy producing) Even Mark is going to make an ornament each day. He is not usually the crafty type, but he is looking forward to this. Today we are talking about God creating the world. So we are going to create ornaments out of salt dough. Our tree is going to be very special this year.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We go to spend some time with family members the night before. Thanksgiving Day we stayed home. My kids (especially the younger two) acted like kids out of some dysfunctional family movie for most of the day. By the time supper rolled around, however, they were like perfect little sweethearts again. My guys are very ego-stroking people to cook for. "Mom, you make the best dressing ever. This turkey is delicious! Hon, your dressing gets better every year. MMMMMMmmmmmmm, mom, you're the BEST cook EVER!" He-he, even though I cooked turkey, I had a kitchen full of hams ;}
The Joy of Learning about Space
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When a child looks up and sees the small dots of light shimmering against
the night sky, the moon shifting over the earth or the sun setting on the
horiz...
9 years ago
4 comments:
FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!!!!!!!!
Happy, happy Thanksgiving, my bloogy friend!
And Merry Christmas!
Festivus.....bwahahahahaha!
Sounds like you all had a great thanksgiving. :-) Thanks for the Sweet Potato Recipe. I am going to make it for Christmas. Yum!
You know, I have read about Jesse Trees every year for some time but have never been interested in doing one until this year after reading your post. How did you do that? A lot of the stuff that I looked at said to tape a poster of a tree on the wall. I think that Mark wishes that would be our only tree this year because we are going to have a time keeping the toddler away from it.
So...what do you teach for Sunday School? Do you tweak the lifeway material? That is what I used to do when that was all I had to teach.
The church that we were going to used the Generations of Grace for 2 years. I liked it so much that I think that I am going to use it in our homeschool.
This is why I never comment. I feel like I am aimlessly rambling, whereas your comments are inspiring. :-P
~Annemarie
Mark- We have our tree, not a pole!!! Don't make me start airing the grievances!!!
Rthling- Right back at you. Be safe on the way home from NY.
Annemarie- I forgot to add on that recipe that you can add pecans or walnuts if you want to.
We have our tree (with lights and all) and instead of decorating it when we put it up, we are just adding five ornaments each day that we make. Our first ornaments we are creating from salt dough and reading about God creating the world. Today we are going to make apples with snakes wrapped around them from foamy stuff. We are taking ideas from several websites and mushing them all together and adding our own. That's how we roll.
As far as Sunday School-I actually do not have to teach (except on the Sundays where Mark has to work)Mark writes his own lessons. Most of our teachers use Lifeway. A few use things off the internet (one actually uses the resources from Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry which I was planning to use fro a few years in children's church) I have been putting together my own lessons for children's church. Sometimes it is a headache, but there are a ton of websites that have ideas for children's ministry (some good, some not so good) so I try to pull some things occasionally from them. Shh... don't tell anyone, but I have been known to sneak a devotional from our Catechism study into a lesson. If I am reading it in front of adults I sometimes have to omit certain parts, but the devotions are really good stories.
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