The Saturday before Advent - time to get out the Christmas decorations.
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| This is half of the mountain that came out of the attic. |
Yesterday saw the removal of fall decorations and a little glimpse of the new season, and today we got a big swath done. For us that means garlands with lights and quantities of ornaments on the garlands, and wreaths.
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| Helpful sons putting up garlands and lights. Not a Mom job. |
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| Is this a Christmas decoration? No, it is the rest of the huge pumpkin that still needed to be cooked, portioned and frozen. |
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| Garlands and wreath. |
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| A section. |
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| This little angel goes up in the same place every year, on the dining room garland; a piece of my history. It was a gift from a baby sitter (Beth Mitchel, I think, or her sister) from sometime before 1968. It used to have a tiny lantern in hand, which disappeared. a year or two ago. I still treasure the angel. |
The rest, that is, the Christmas tree and creche, won't appear until midway through Advent when we get a tree.
Also, it is about time for Advent Calendars or
Jesse Trees, as one chooses. I do not have as much done as I had hoped for the Jesse Tree pictures - only one page - but an obliging son went through the rigamarole of getting that much on here as a clickable,
printable page (see below). This includes the first four days of the season. I do hope someone will try it and let me know if it works. I am working on this as the basis of our family Christmas Eve service this year. I plan, starting tomorrow, to have a short written accompaniment to each figure, day by day. If all goes well, the rest of the figures will go up all at once shortly.
(Note that the PDF page will appear upside down when you click on it, but that shouldn't matter for printing. We're trying to get the hang of this process.)
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| These are the first four figures for the Jesse Tree. They can be colored and cut out and hung. Or if anyone is ambitious, they could be embroidered on fabric or pieced in felt or made in any other creative way one chooses. |
Click the link to download printable PDF:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hlligoo2yfr39h/SCAN0019.PDF?dl=0
I am extremely impressed with the amount of decorating you have done already! I always kind of balk at it, even though it is advent. I don't want it to look so Christmasy already! I went shopping today and was annoyed at the Christmas music on the radio and all the decorations. I feel like it is too soon! I need to get with the program.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of a Jesse tree. Is one drawing for each day? Like an advent calendar? We could print them and give them to our Sunday school kids.
For Advent we like to have a suitable framework, which means putting up some atmosphere for what it is we are preparing for - thus seasonal decorations. I put reds and greens and my accumulated varieties of ornaments in the Dining room, where we spend most of our time. In the living room, which is for Services and more focused gtherings I put the White/Crystal/ glass ornaments with the green to allow for the purples of Advent, before the Christmas Eve Switch. I do agree that massice amounts of Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving, and sometimes before Reformation, is annoying. But for Advent, I like the atmosphere. Also It helps me get mindful of the little time I have left to get huge quantities of things ready.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to Jesse Trees, they are used like Advent Calendars, but with a specific theme, this being the geneology of Jesus' Incarnation for God's plan of Salvation. It is good for all of us think on these things in this busy time, but is especially helpful for children to see the development of God's outworking of history in and through the lives of specific people.
This would make an very helpful Sunday School Project. Parents could be involved.
Thank you for the elaboration.
Delete" Also It helps me get mindful of the little time I have left to get huge quantities of things ready." Wow. I get that. Yes, I better get at it!
Make that "gatherings" and"massive" and fewer capital letters.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited you're doing this! Pam just told me about it and we've been "adapting" a reformed version of the Jesse tree for several years.. we will definitely be doing this!
ReplyDeleteOne should go back and check comment, I see. Hello, Loraine. I am happy to see you among us. Blessed Advent.
ReplyDelete