So sticking with the theme of Christmas traditions I thought I'd share a couple of new ones we've added the past two years. Last Advent season I was introduced to the Jesse Tree by the amazing
Andrea. I knew right away this was definitely a tradition I wanted to add but being that Advent had already begun and I had no ornaments for our Jesse Tree we just did the readings and I showed the kiddos the pictures. This year I was slightly more prepared and a couple days before Advent started I sat around a table heaped with felt with some of my most favorite ladies in the world and we crafted our little hearts out making ornaments to coordinate with the readings. We laughed and ate and crafted til' the wee hours of the night and when I left I had a
complete almost finished set of ornaments. Now let me back it up a bit and explain what the Jesse Tree is. The Jesse Tree is a collection of daily scriptures and devotions that begin with the scripture from Isaiah 11:1 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit." Jesse was the father of David and Jesus was born in the line of David. Each day is a different reading from the Bible with a short devotion and one question and a short prayer. The ornaments can be made from felt (or anything you choose) and then each night after we've completed our reading the ornaments are hung on branches I collected from the yard. I would love to tell you this is a picture right out of Norman Rockwell painting, that we sit under the Christmas tree and quietly read our Bible while we reflect on the devotion and question. But I'd be lying to ya if I did....this blog isn't titled four little monkeys for nothing! Yes, we do sit by the lit Christmas tree but that's about where the picture ends. Most nights Amelia and Josie Kate are fighting over who gets to be Vanna White holding the ornament out for display, Sam and Maggie are usually finding something funny to giggle about and I have to pull out all the old teacher tricks to get them all to focus. But I wouldn't change it for anything and it's worth every last re-direction. The kids ARE learning and they are GETTING it. Even with all the noise and the re-reading and stopping for tears they are getting it and they look forward to it each night. I say all this not to give you the crazy on our family but to keep it real and to encourage you to keep at it even in the chaos. I remember last year thinking this isn't going to work we have too big of an age range between our kids to do an activity like this. But we stuck it out and we're sticking it out again and we will again next year. If there is only one tradition we do~it will be this one. Some nights we close the Bible and I wonder what they will take with them but there are more nights when questions are asked and great conversations started and deep thoughts by our 4 year old that blow me away and remind me how important it is that we take time to pour this into them. So even if you think your kiddos are too young or there isn't enough time in the day or they would never focus I encourage you....this is one tradition worth the time and crazy! If you want to check out the devotions you can find them here....
https://www.rca.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=1628
And a glimpse at our ornaments....
I highly recommend crafting these with some friends and even though we had patterns to follow most of us ended up going out on a limb (no pun intended) and made up our own pattern or copied what the friend next to us was doing. Patterns can be found here....
The newest tradition at our house is reading this together....
This was one of my all-time favorites when I was a kid and I love it just as much now. I'm having a blast reading it to the kids and I hope it's one they treasure for years too.
And in case anyone is interested here's a list of our recent Christmas Advent activities....
Day #6 Each kiddo picked someone to call and tell them "I love you."
Day#7 Homemade milkshakes with penguin straws
Day #8 Write letters to our sponsored kiddos in Swaziland and have some hot cocoa with whip cream
Day #9 Well, let's just say this one got lost in the shuffle. It was one of those crazy days I didn't plan anything because I knew we'd be running from sunrise to sunset and I wanted to roll with it and maybe throw in a surprise. They ended up spending most of the evening with their Grandma and Papa (which they love to do) so later that night when Maggie said "hey, what was our advent today?" I said "a fun night with Grandma and Papa." Sometimes we gotta be flexible:)
Day #10 I was spending the night in the city with the girls so they had movie and popcorn night with dad.
Day #11 This is the same every year....I bring a treat home from my shopping trip for each of them. Just something little.
Day #12 Eat dinner by candlelight (this is one of their favorites)
Day #13 Make rice krispy treats
Day #14 Cut out snowflakes
Day #15 Make Christmas Blessing bags. For directions look here
http://deckthehalls-christmas.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-blessing-mix.html This was a new one this year and the kids loved it. Not only did they enjoy making the bags but they loved munching as they worked. It was fun to watch how each of them went about it. Sam decided to make just one big bag for a single friend while Maggie made them for her entire basketball team. Millie made just two and Josie Kate snagged all the Hershey kisses in put them in a bag for herself. Oh the joys of being two! (Thanks
Bri
for this great idea)!
Off to bed there are Christmas parties to be celebrated tomorrow and a fun "new" Advent activity!
So now onto the bump in the road. As most of you know we've been working our tails off to get our dossier done and submitted. We have been hopeful of having a number by Christmas. Last week we were just awaiting the copy of our finished homestudy so we could add that to the rest of the paperwork and finally get it sent off to AGCI. On Tuesday when our social worker called and said she'd send it in the mail on Wednesday I quickly responded with a "how about we just come and get it?" So Rock being the great husband he is jumped in the car and drove an hour to pick it up so we could get it to FedEx and overnight it that day. When he got home he handed me the paperwork and just to be safe I checked the last page for the notary and what do you know?! The notary expired in three days! Aghhhh!!! For those of you in the adoption world you know what a big deal this is. All our documents must have a notarization that is good for at least one year. So you can see how this was an issue. Thankfully our social worker was so wonderful and had a new copy with the appropriate notarization to us by the next day. However, because of this little hiccup we thought we'd better re-check all the notary expiration dates and sure enough....two more needed to be redone! At this point I'm trying to keep the tears from coming~you have to know what a long and emotional process this is to really understand my state of mind. Rock quickly reminds me these are little things we can quickly take care of and better to send it in complete than have to make a bunch of changes. He makes the necessary phone calls and e-mails to get the revised letters and now it looks like we're ready to go. But no wait...there's more! This morning I'm having the best time with some friends (Darcee and Linda) at breakfast and Darcee and I are talking dossier papework. To make a long story short through this conversation I realized there was another document we would have to have redone and I would need to drive about an hour to the state capital to have it done. So guess what the girls and I did this afternoon? 
