Savoring the Season: Christmas Countdown, Day 25

{image courtesy of VintageHolidayCrafts.com}

As we head into one of my favorite times of year, I wanted to try and count down to Christmas again on the blog, as I have some other years. I'll likely miss some days here and there, but hopefully I will get quite a few posts up about things we are doing to prepare for Christmas!

Last night, we started our Advent countdown with our Jesse tree. The kids and I headed out to the woods just as it was starting to get dusky and picked up some branches. When Jim got home, we had him choose the one he thought would work the best, and put it in a tall glass bottle filled with marbles. Tonight we added the first ornament. :) Once again this year, we are using Ann Voskamp's free Jesse tree devotional. It's beautifully written, and I enjoy using it even though it is a little "deep" for the kids--but we try to talk about the readings and bring it down to their level a bit more. They do love the tradition of taking turns hanging up the ornaments every night as we have our family Bible time together!

I hope to add pictures of our Jesse tree later, but am too tired tonight. Here is a post I wrote about it 2 years ago, though, where you can see some of the ornaments. I just realized I am going to need to make a few more ornaments to try to fill out our set, too! Eeeek! Well, I can always cheat and download some of the free ones this year if need be. :)

Do you do anything special to celebrate Advent as a family? You might also enjoy Crystal's post with links to some great free Advent printables, including the devotional I mentioned above.