Jesse Tree 20 21 22-Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph

Tonight we will spotlight Elizabeth

As someone who had a baby at 39, I love the story of Elizabeth...and Sarah...If course it's not the same, but they make me smile.

Here is her story...and here, where she does kind of a little praise/prophecy thing. And here, although it was in yesterday's story too, is the birth of her baby, etc.

We are eating

terriyaki, because it takes a long time to make before you actually eat it...(marinating overnight)

buns (like a bun in the oven)

mashed potatoes because sometimes when you are pregnant you can only stand white bland food.

and tootsie pops (a fun surprise inside:-))

The ornament is a grandma doll (like Polly Pocket size) with a baby rubberbanded on.
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Saturday we will spotlight Mary

Foods for that day-
Hamburgers

Fries

Pop
(because they are teen foods and Mary was supposed to be about 14)

Angelfood cake (because God found favor with her)

The ornament is a lily.

The story is here. There is more, of course, but that's all we are doing today.
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Sunday we will spotlight Joseph

Sunday is also Christmas Eve and we always go to Chuck E Cheese or Incredible Pizza on that day. Kind of a kid party thing...for Jesus. Celebrating Christmas Day too, but it's different.

So we will do that for part of that day and then for dinner we will have

PBJ circle sandwiches (I have a Pampered Chef item that does this, but you can also buy those frozen ones).

And BLTs because bacon kind of looks like a ruler which one might use in carpentry.

We also eat those honey BBQ corkscrew looking fritos...because they look like a screw.

And those big pretzel rods dipped in chocolate.

The story is here

And the ornament that we use is a ruler.

We pretty much end our Jesse Tree here...we are either usually out of town and this year, since we are going to be home, we are going to try something new. I am envisioning something like the Amazing Race, where at certain points of the story we will play a game, sing a song etc. I'll let you know how it works out.

Thursday Thirteen #20 AND Jesse Tree #20 Zachariah

Kind of funny coincidence that the 20th day of our Jesse Tree would fall on my 20th Thursday Thirteen.





Thirteen Things about Jesse Tree #20 Zachariah



1. Today we start the New Testament folks for our Jesse Tree, beginning with Zachariah.

2. Zachariah was a priest.

3. He was married to Elizabeth and they were both old.

4. They didn't have any children, which was a big deal, but they had kind of made peace with it, since there was basically no chance of having kids at this stage of life.

5. Zachariah one turn in life to go into the Holy of Holies to take care of the incense and whatever other things need doing in there was on this day (in the story) . It was probably the high point of his life as a priest.

6. He went into the chamber, and was focusing on the tasks he had to perform, when an angel appeared.

7. Gabriel (the angel) said, (as angels do in the Bible) "Don't be afraid." Seems that they always have to say that. Sometimes they don't say it and I guess those people are supposed to be afraid, like here.

8.He told Zachariah and he (Zachariah) and Elizabeth were going to have a baby and name him John, but Zachariah didn't believe it.

9. So, as a sign, Zachariah was unable to speak until John was born.

10 For the Jesse Tree, we use a pad a pencil for the ornament, because Zachariah was unable to speak.

11. We are using multicolored jello squares for the ephod, which is fancy breastplate that the priests wore.

12. And corn dogs (beef:-)), because of the oil in the temple (since you have to fry them).

13. And Laffy Taffy for the dessert, since it is hard to talk with it in your mouth.

Tomorrow is Elizabeth...thanks for stopping by.:-)



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Jesse Tree #19-Ezekiel

Focusing on Ezekiel today...Not the part about "Ezekiel saw de wheel" although that will be part of the clue as to who this is (did I ever say that I usually make the kids guess who it is based on elements in the dinner?)

So tonight we are having

Wagonwheel pasta (which they do NOT have at my Walmart and I had to go to Albertson's to get it)

Smoked Sausage cut into wheels

(no dry bones)

green beans

popovers (for the story) (nothing inside)

cotton candy (for the story) (because it vanishes when it hits your tongue)

Our story is based on Ezekiel 10, where the glory of God leaves the temple.

Here is some additional info from Early Jewish Writings

In a vision dated to 592 B.C.E., Ezekiel was transported back to the temple in Jerusalem. There he witnessed a variety of improper activities. The religious leaders of Jerusalem were secretly worshiping foreign gods in the temple compound. Women were devoted to Tammuz, the Babylonian fertility god. These activities were an outrage to Yahweh. In consequence, he got up to leave the temple. Ezekiel's description of Yahweh's departure utilizes the throne-chariot imagery of chapter 1. The "glory of Yahweh" mounted the cherub-powered vehicle.
In stages Yahweh exited the temple, stopping at certain points, including the threshold of the temple and the east gate of the courtyard, as if reluctant to leave.
Hovering over Jerusalem, then over the Mount of Olives east of the city, finally Yahweh was gone. The people had driven away Yahweh by their corrupt practices. He would no longer be there to protect them, and they would be taken into captivity.
This is the message that Ezekiel brought to the exiles: Jerusalem would fall, as punishment from Yahweh.

Sad, but it kind of paves the way for the birth of Jesus.

Ornament for today will be a "cloud" which represents the glory of God.

Duh and Jesse Tree #18 Jeremiah

Well....forgot to say that Isaiah also prophesied about Jesus' birth and here.

OK, sorry about that...can't believe I did it.

Today we are studying Jeremiah the prophet. We have a little bottle of salt water because he was called the Weeping Prophet.

We have an arch book that talks about him called, Jeremiah and the Fall of Jerusalem and the Bible story can be found here, here, here, here and here. I am not sure why we do Jeremiah, except that our original Jesse Tree had him. He is great and all, but so is Elisha and we don't have anything about him. May rethink that one...anyway, this year, it stands.

For our dinner, we are having...

donuts because they represent the hole that he was thrown into

sausage...because I had a different idea that involved sausage and then came up with the donuts, so that is where we are with it.

May make scrambled eggs as well, to signify the destruction of which Jeremiah prophesied.

Popcorn for dessert...salty. tears...

Tomorrow is Ezekial...and that will be the last story before we get to the regular Nativity story.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Jesse Tree #17 Isaiah

We are doing Isaiah today...he prophesied about Jesus' death and probably some other things...I need to do a study on him sometime....but not today.

For our food (and we are thinking orange for the burning coal, things that are hot, etc)

Sweet and Sour Chicken...has that orange sauce, carrot coins...white rice, which could be purity
Hot fudge cake (hot)

My kids will never guess it based on that stuff, but so many of these stories have to do with fire...and I am not allowed to run the grill by myself:-)

For the dessert, one could also do chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting, or if you reeeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyyy think ahead, you could save the Oreos from halloween and use them. But we love hot fudge cake at our house so there you go. Just the Pillsbury one, or I think Betty Crocker has one, too.

For the ornament, we just took (surprise) a charcoal and painted it orange.

Here is the passage we will be using...and this one is the prophecy about Jesus. I know it's kind of heavy, but we still use it. It's kind of amazing to think of Isaiah saying all of that so far away from when it really happened.

Jesse Tree #15 The Fiery Furnace

No mistake on the numbering...I missed yesterday...stink. My friend, Hester, had her baby and I was running some errands toward that end. The baby was 3 pounds 8 ounces and looks beautiful...:-)

If you read Thursday's post, I put a little bit there for it...

Moving forward...

Today is Shadrach, Meshach and Abdnego. I love yesterday's story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal and I love this one too...soooo dramatic!

So this is what we are eating...

hamburgers and 1 steak (for the surprise...like the king was surprised when he saw the Fourth Man) My kids like hamburgers but they love steak so that will be fun.

Mashed potatoes in a hill for the furnace.

salad...just because.

Now for the dessert...I found some bags kind of like grab bags at Albertson's a couple of weeks ago...with their single candy items...don't really know what is in there (hopefully no vampire teeth or witch's nose or whatever...) but again, the act of looking in and being surprised...there is supposed to be candy in there too...

If you can't get those, you could do funnel cakes or fireballs or hot tamales...just something physically hot or hot tasting.

We have a little film canister that we glued wooden matches around for our ornament.

Here is the story. You could also watch The Veggie Tale version, which we may...

PLANNING to be here tomorrow. The story is Daniel and the Lion's Den.

We are having slices of ham with Mac and Cheese around the perimeter (squint your eyes and it might look like a lion:-))...and mixed vegetables...fruit rollups with the tattoos on them for the writing on the wall (That was actually before the lion's den incident, but I love that story) and the story is here in case I am not.

Jesse Tree #13 Tower of Babel

Please pray for my friend, Hester...she is pregnant and is all puffy...high blood pressure, etc. I know the name for it but don't know how to spell it. Anyway, they are going to take the baby tomorrow with a C section. His name is Eli.:-) It's her first baby. Thanks....
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And now, on to the Jesse Tree

The kids loved it, I missed it, so I am picking it up...

Food for us is...

Cheese Pizza (Italian)
Chips and Cheese (Mexican)
Stir Fry Broccoli with Sesame Seeds (Chinese)
Fried Rice (maybe) ) (Chinese)
Cheesecake

and maybe some Milk of Magnesia after all that cheese...

The ornament is a Lego building.

The story is here...

In case I don't make it in here tomorrow...

The story is Elijah and the prophets of Baal. My personal favorite.

We are having

Pork roast (the offering...I know it wouldn't have been pork)
Tater tots (for the wood...sort of)
Gravy (for the water)
Some vegetable
Dessert-those haystacks that you make with chow mein noodles and butterscotch chips and marshmallows, I think. They look kind of like the altar for burning, right???

The story is here

Jesse Tree #12-David

Today we are going to talk about David during our Jesse Tree time.

For our food, we are having...

hot dogs, cut into disks to replicate the five smooth stones

biscuits, rolled out to about twice their size, dipped in melted butter and then dredged in Parmesan cheese for shields (like the one King Saul gave to David to wear) baked about 7 minutes, I think (keep an eye on them)

asparagus for a spear

Rold Gold pretzels...the cheese ones...for praying hands

For the dessert (and remember some are better than others...) we are using
little gingerbread men for David
the Keebler Elf sandwich cookies for Goliath and
m&ms for the stones...

The story of David and Goliath can be found here. Or if you have it, you could watch VeggieTales Dave and the Giant Pickle.

We made a little sling with a stone a few years back for our ornament. You could just use 5 stones...whatever would represent the story to your family.

See you tomorrow...we will be doing Babel, because my kids missed it and we weren't going to do one tomorrow because of a school program. Instead, I decided to back up and do it.

Jesse Tree #12-David

Today we are going to talk about David during our Jesse Tree time.

For our food, we are having...

hot dogs, cut into disks to replicate the five smooth stones

biscuits, rolled out to about twice their size, dipped in melted butter and then dredged in Parmesan cheese for shields (like the one King Saul gave to David to wear) baked about 7 minutes, I think (keep an eye on them)

asparagus for a spear

Rold Gold pretzels...the cheese ones...for praying hands

For the dessert (and remember some are better than others...) we are using
little gingerbread men for David
the Keebler Elf sandwich cookies for Goliath and
m&ms for the stones...

The story of David and Goliath can be found here. Or if you have it, you could watch VeggieTales Dave and the Giant Pickle.

We made a little sling with a stone a few years back for our ornament. You could just use 5 stones...whatever would represent the story to your family.

See you tomorrow...we will be doing Babel, because my kids missed it and we weren't going to do one tomorrow because of a school program. Instead, I decided to back up and do it.

Jesse Tree #11 Samuel

Today we are spotlighting Samuel...

Here are the foods we are using...

Ravioli (frozen...cheese and meat) for a pillow (since Samuel was sleeping...this is the "kid Samuel")

Spaghetti Sauce (canned)

Salad (bed of lettuce with some other veggies)

Fried Pies from the Dolly Madison outlet store...also the Wonder outlet store...not the Hostess outlet store...I knew as soon as I saw the words Dolly Madison that it was that one because of the Peanuts characters that used to be on the wrappers...they do not open until 9:00 AM and that did not work for me so I still have to get those.

The story is found in most children's Bibles, and usually just tells the part about Samuel hearing God's voice...such a sweet picture. We usually stop short of the actual message that Samuel was given to convey, at least on this night....Anyway Samuel is awesome, one of the prophets that really doesn't have anything said that was bad about him ever. Yea Samuel! Here is the story from the regular Bible. This is the sweet one. For the complete. more complicated and grown up story, start with Hannah (his mother), Eli (the priest's) awful sons, Samuel's hearing of God and the message God gave him here.

Our ornament is a little bed.

Happy Jesse Treeing!

Jesse Tree #10- Joshua..also Plague list and food for tomorrow...

I have to say that Amazing Race was the biggest rip off ever...EVER.

It was like Phil said, "Those beauties are gone so let's just end this as fast as we can...I am so done with this season." Totally worthless...shame on you Amazing Race people.
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OK, on to Joshua...

but first, an update on the plagues...

1. blood-raspberry sauce to go around the brownie
2. frogs -chicken wings without the wingtip (we did our buffalo style, and with just butter and salt after frying for the kids)
3. gnats-couscous
4. flies - raisins (thanks Don:-))
5. animals dying-cook a hot dog (beef;-)). Cut into 1 inch pieces. Set one on each plate like a little tower. Before eating the meal, tell everyone to knock it down (symbolic of animals dying)
6. boils (wanted to use those butter mints you get at a wedding, but didn't think of it soon enough...used M&Ms instead)
7. locusts/crops decimated-used sugar snap peas...I thought they looked kind of locust-ish, but Darth said that it was the crops....works for me.
8. darkness-brownies
9. hail-little scoop of ice cream.
10. death-crescent rolls unrolled...keep the two triangles together to form a rectangle. Bake for about 5 minutes at 375. We said this was a shroud.
You can get 4 of these out of a tube...they are pretty big.
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OK...today we are doing Joshua...

For the food we have

Chicken-because he was afraid.
hashbrowns-for the flax that the spies hid under.
waffles-for the wall
pomegranate-for the red on the wall from Rahab.
fudge-set up in a wall fashion for the wall...with a tiny bit of red for Rahab's window.

The ornament is a ram horn that we made from Sculpey, but I think another great one would be just a red cloth strip tied to a branch of the tree.

We have a video of this story (Greatest Heroes of the Bible-Hannah Barbara) that we will probably watch. There is also an arch book called Jericho's Tumbling Walls that is pretty good. Or just read it out of a children's Bible story book.

The actual Bible story is found here...

My kids love this one...the story and the fudge.:-)

Tomorrow

Samuel-

Food items (in case you are working ahead)

Frozen ravioli (for the pillow) and spaghetti sauce

salad (This is a stretch but I am going to use it...a bed of lettuce)

May try for a bread item...maybe half of one of those big breadsticks? Wish I could think how to put a face on it....it could be Samuel...we'll see about that.

I was going to use turnovers, but those never really "go over" at my house, so we are going to use those Hostess Fruit pies...they used to have chocolate and I may try for that. I am going to the Hostess Bargain Bread Store to get these tomorrow.

This is the story of Hannah and Samuel if I don't get back in here tomorrow.

Jesse Tree #7 Baby Moses, #8 The Plagues, #9 The Ten Commandments

Well...this is interesting...I had not followed Paul's stories through and just now I found out that he ends his timeline of Old Testament at the Joseph story.

So...today with Moses (Baby Moses) I did find this and apparently some work went into it, but once I was in I couldn't get out short of Control/Alt/Delete...so be warned about that.

If you liked reading Paul's renditions of Bible stories, you can email him and tell him here (scroll to the bottom of the link)

On to Baby Moses...

For dinner, we are having

little smokies wrapped in crescent roll dough (from the dairy section...you know Pillsbury crescent rolls?) (for the baby)

shoestring french fries (for the reeds in the water where Moses was hidden)

peas (no reason...I just have some)

those icky baby bottle candies where you put the bottle part in your mouth and then turn it over and dip it into something sprinkly...I hate stuff like this (if you don't know what I am talking about, look on the checkout at Walmart), but once a year I can stand it and the kids always love stuff like that.

We will probably watch the Veggie Tale that has the story of Baby Moses on it. If I find the exact one, I will come and amend this, but that is what we will probably do. Here I am again...The Veggie Tale with the story of Miriam and Moses is Duke and the Great Pie War. There is also a story based on Ruth and Naomi on this DVD.

We have a little basket that we will put on the the tree.

Next year if we do the Tower of Babel...you know, the one I left out and got heat for from the kids...we may leave out Baby Moses, but for this year it is in.

Here is the Biblical account...

Tomorrow is the Plagues, then Sunday is the Ten Commandments.

For the plagues, we are going to have chicken wings...I mean frog legs...I think if I take off that pointy piece of the wing I can talk my kids into thinking they are frog legs, don't you?

So frog legs,
would like to do grits for gnats, but I don't know if they would eat...
flies
animals died
boils
hail
locusts
death
brownies for darkness...if you are a real chef, you could sit them in a pool of raspberry sauce for the blood...My kids would probably love that idea.

If you have any thoughts for the above, let me know. No REAL locusts or anything though...just symbolic, thank you very much :-).

Here's the Bible passage.

At this point, if you wanted to, you could watch The Prince of Egypt. They pretty much end the story with the people leaving Egypt....actually I have to laugh at the end of that movie because it shows Moses coming down the mountain with the Ten Commandments...it's kind of a happy ending...but if you read the biblical account, he is about to walk down to Aaron and all the people dancing around a golden calf....and he burns the calf and grinds it up and makes the drink it...anyway, not really so happy about 10 seconds after the movie ends.

The ornament is a paper towel roll with little symbolic things from each plague...the paper towel roll to signify Moses' staff.

Sunday...the 10 Commandments.

We are eating cheesesteak sandwiches cut in half to look like the stone tablets.

Those big pretzel rods for the staff.

and Take 5 Candy bars with numbers written on the back...1-10:-)...you will need 5 bars (they have 2 small ones in each package)

The Bible story is here...

A few years ago we made little "stone" tablets from Sculpey. Decorated with Roman Numerals 1-10. We use one of those for our ornament.

whew! OK, probably too much for one day, but I am just thinking about this weekend and I don't know if I will get back in here...maybe...

Have a great weekend and don't forget to watch the finale of Amazing Race on Sunday night...woohoo woohoo!

Thursday Thirteen #19

We are doing a Jesse Tree this year...to see more, scroll back a few days...anyway, today is Joseph. Thanks for visiting!





Thirteen Things about Jesse Tree #7 (Joseph)



1. We are spotlighting a different Bible story/character every night until Christmas...tonight is Joseph, son of Jacob.

2. We always have some kind of dinner food or dessert that supports the story.

3. Tonight we are having spaghetti (for the bowing grain) in Joseph's dream.

4. and meatballs (for the dream cows that ate each other)

5. and corn (for the dream corn) in Pharoah's dream.

6. and breadsticks (for the grain that Joseph kept track of)

7. and a multicolored cake---divide white (or yellow) cake batter into 3 bowls, color with food coloring and carefully pour into pan, trying not to mix the colors...we will also color white frosting---(for the coat of many colors)

8. For the Jesse Tree ornament, we have some wheat that I bought a few years ago at Hobby Lobby in the floral section that has some colored fabric tied around it. We kind of just stick it in the tree.

9. The story can be found in the Bible:-)

or

10. (because we have small children), we like to use Paul's Bible stories. They are fun to read even if you don't do the Jesse Tree.

11. This year I also got a copy of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond.

12. I used to have such a huge crush on him.

13. "....and they call it....Puppy Love-------....." (swoon:-))



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Jesse Tree #6 Jacob

We are doing Jacob today. The first year we did it, the only food related thing we had was

candybars

which I carefully (painstakingly) took from their wrappers and mixed up so that when everyone chose they were tricked. This year we are opening them but leaving the correct ones...tricky, huh?

This year we are also having

chicken fried steak (as the meat that was specially prepared for Isaac)
ramen noodles (for the soup that Esau traded his birthright for)
carrots (good for your eyes...Isaac was blind ya know...work with me here)

The story is here (Paul's version) and here (the Bible).
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Tomorrow is Joseph...we are making a cake with many colors:-), so make sure you have a white cake mix, a can of frosting and some food coloring or sprinkles. And spaghetti and meatballs (frozen is what I am getting).

See you then!

Jesse Tree #5 Isaac

Sooo...Isaac today!:-)

ram ornament

blackened chicken
french fries (looks kind of like wood, right?)
still balking on the vegetable.
smores

My kids told me last night that they were disappointed that we didn't do the Tower of Babel. I forgot about it. They didn't. Should have been right before Abraham if we were going to do it. If you want to add it in for next year yourself, here is the story from Paul or the Bible and we generally just pick foods from different countries so whatever you like. The only lament I heard yesterday was the missing cheesecake for that night's dessert. So Chinese noodles, tacos, meatballs, sushi...whatever you do that your family likes.

For the Isaac story...which is tonight for us...

Paul's story or the Bible

See you tomorrow...

Jesse Tree #4-Abraham

I was asked recently, "What is a Jesse Tree?"

I am not sure that we do it "right"....kind of like when we watched the VeggieTale Esther to celebrate Purim. I am sure there are those who would not be able to sit through that "ceremony":-), or our Passover, which we have also worked around to suit our family.

A few years ago, we decided that for our family, we would use the bulk of December to celebrate the coming of Jesus as a baby to the earth. After making that decision, we found the some things on the Jesse Tree at Domestic-church.com...if you scroll down, you will see the pdfs for the pictures of Jesse Tree topics.

We do one every day. We used to do it from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, but Thanksgiving moves, ya know:-)...so now we start on December 1. We also used to blackout dates that we knew we would be gone in the evenings...but we don't do that anymore. That way it is consistent every year.

On the above Jesse Tree page, Catherine Fournier (who has a pretty cool Jesse Tree) describes the Jesse Tree this way:

The Jesse tree is a symbol of Jesus' family tree.

It also takes us through that first long Advent which lasted from the Fall to the Incarnation.

I don't think our Jesse Tree follows Jesus' family tree very closely...some of it is in His lineage, some not. What we try to keep in our minds is the reason He came. He created a perfect world and we messed it up...and keep messing it up over and over with our sin. So God sent Jesus to bring the gift of wiping our sinful slate clean with His death and resurrection. We simply have to admit we need it and accept it, and, with His help, turn from our sin. We will sin again, but with God's gift, He doesn't see our sin anymore, because Jesus' blood covers it. That's the way I see it anyway.

So, on with the Jesse Tree!

Today we are doing Abraham...the promise of lots of descendants, all that.

The menu will be
Roast (the calf)
Rhodes rolls for the bread.
green beans
tiny pasta that I found in the Latino part of Walmart.
AND (I forgot to say this yesterday) star shaped cookies that we will frost tonight.

Here and here are Paul's pages for Abraham if you want to use them...there are some in between, but this is the part we will do.

or this if you want to use the Bible

Our ornament is a long dark piece of paper covered with stars. We just kind of set it in the branches.

Tomorrow we will be remembering the near sacrifice of Isaac.

We will be eating

blackened chicken (with Paul Prudhomme's seasoning) (fire theme)
baked potatoes (fire theme)
peas (just because we need a vegetable)
s'mores (fire theme)

Our ornament is a ram that I made (yes I did) out of Sculpey, which you can find in the Craft Department at Walmart. Or use the picture from the site above (domestic church) or get a ram from the Toy Department in the little cheap toys where you can get a bag of farm animals for 88 cents. Whatever works for you. :-)

A Weight Lifted...

I told a friend recently that I wanted to only post edifying, spiritual things until Christmas, such as the Jesse Tree stuff, but then I was met with a temptation to digress with the Amazing Race last night...

So all I am going to say about it is that a feel as though a weight has been lifted and that my heart is singing...I will be able to watch the final episode in a relaxed way, knowing that whatever happens, based on yesterday, I have already won.

My prayers on this issue have been answered. :-)

Back later with Jesse Tree, I hope.

Jesse Tree #2 & #3

For anyone who ever looks at this blog, you know that I don't always get things done in the timeline that I set for myself. And so, even though we did actually do the Jesse Tree last night, I did not have an opportunity to give a report on it or even tell you what you needed if you were going to do it.

Sorry sorry sorry...really...if you were doing it I hope I didn't mess you up.

So, anyway, here was last night's Jesse Tree event...

The story was the first sin.

We had
ribs from Swadley's (for the making of Eve)
applesauce (for the forbidden fruit)
rice (for the food that they had to work for now, because of sin...because you have to cook rice...)
and crescent rolls.... just "because".

For the dessert, I wanted to have Cowtails (the are a long piece of caramel) for the snake, but I couldn't find them this year. I will need to do some planning ahead next year, because I do like those.

Darth suggested, after the fact, that we could have candied apples/caramel apples (again capitalizing on the fruit idea) and maybe we will next year.... this has always been a work in progress in the 6 years that we have done it.

What we actually DID this year was use gummy worms...which everyone liked just fine.

For the story, again, you can use Paul Dallgas-Frey (I am spelling his name correctly today...sorry Paul) who has a story about the making of Eve, the original sin, and consequences of their sin. Or you can just use the Bible which is great. Or whatever you and your family would enjoy.

We made a pomegranate and a rubber snake hot glued on a few years back, so that is what we use on our tree.

Now....for today.

We are doing Noah today...so
fish sticks
potato boats
some veggie
animal crackers
and blue jello.

Our ornament is a rainbow that the kids colored and a fake dove I bought at Hobby Lobby one year, hot glued on.

The story is actually this in the Bible, but if you use Paul's stuff, you may want to start with this one and follow through the flood (ending with a Rainbow and a Promise)

Tomorrow (in case I don't get in here until the afternoon or something) we are doing Abraham...

For the ornament we used a black piece of paper with sticker stars (kids like to do it...just the office kind, not a scrapbook kind of caliber)..ours is about 2 feet long and about 6 inches wide. We kind of weave through the tree.

And the food is
tiny pasta (like orzo pasta) for the stars in the sky
a veggie
some big piece of meat (probably not a whole calf...)
and some bread...if you are really industrious, you can make your own (not happening here) or make a loaf of frozen bread (like Rhodes). The smell would add to the senses in the story.

Planning to check in tomorrow...Happy Jesse Treeing!

Jesse Tree #1-Creation

Happy December!

Today is the first day that we are going to do the Jesse Tree. We will do something for it every day this month up to Christmas Eve.

For Creation, we will make Rice Krispie Treats in the shape of the world.

To do this, make a batch of regular Rice Krispie batter :-), then separate into two bowls. Use blue food coloring for half and green for half.

Let it cool a bit...you have some time. Then take a blob of blue and a blob of green and mold them together into a ball.

Squint your eyes a bit. See? It's a representation of Earth!

For our tree (which already has the lights on it, but no ornaments) make some kind of Earth...Styrofoam ball, cutout of paper colored like Earth, just something. Hang it on the tree.

If you have a Bible storybook of the creation account, you can read that. Or you can access my friend

Paul Dallgas-Frye's Bible Stories for Children...Creation Story

If you follow the link through, there are a few pages with the creation story, and Paul does a great job here.

Or you can just read the Creation account from Genesis 1

Happy Jesse Treeing!