Gloria! Celebrate Advent with the Jesse Tree

The season of Advent is upon us! Actually, the season began a few days ago, but in our house celebration begins today, December 1st. I have our Jesse Tree ornaments in the Advent calendar, treats in the candy jar (with five children all old enough for treats they don't fit in the calendar anymore! The treats, not the children), and our daily readings all planned out.

Jesse Tree, what's that? Ornaments? What daily readings, you say? Oh, I'm so glad you asked!

You see, there's this wee little Advent ebook called Gloria! A Family Guide to Advent and Epiphany. It takes you through all of December with daily readings, songs, activities, Jesse Tree ornaments, and then, THEN it takes you through the Twelve Days of Christmas. You knew the 12 Days of Xmas came after Christmas, right? Even better, it's free! Look, here it is:

Download Now!

And wouldn't you know, I put the whole thing together. A labor of insanity that began in 2012 or something. A long time ago. The first year I made these cute, lumpy, hideous ornaments from salt dough without knowing that salt dough was, well, lacking in longevity. Here's the deal: Salt dough doesn't always dry all the way, or it will re-moisturize (that's a word, right?) if left in a damp place. Like, say, a basement. And what happens when metal hooks combine with moisture? Uh, yeah.

So I had to make all new ornaments (not all I suppose, since some weren't made with salt dough, though since I was making most of them over, I ended up making all of them over because I'm like that). These are a few of the ornaments:

Find the rest in the book which you can download here!

And just in case you were wondering what special fun activities are included in the book, and what stories are studied on each day, find the full list below:

And click here to preview one of the fabulous songs for the first day.