Advent Update

So I don’t have a link-up or a series this advent but I have done some really cool stuff this year. So this post is going to be about all the things I have done this Advent Season with lots of awesome pictures (because who doesn’t like pictures of advent and christmas themed items).

You see last year during the after Christmas Sales I bought this awesome wooden tree at Hobby Lobby for $4! (some lady even tried to steal it out of my cart!!)

Ever since I bought it I knew I would use it as a Jesse Tree this year. Back in October a friend of mine linked to a blog that was hosting a Jesse Tree Ornament Swap. I quickly joined in because this was a great way for me to collect all my ornaments as I had never done a Jesse Tree and I wasn’t even sure how I’d make all the ornaments this year.

I’m in the process of collecting ideas for a Blackboard themed party so when I painted the tree I used Green Blackboard spray paint to see how it came out and it works great! I’ve been putting the ornaments on every day and they are awesome! Here is what my tree looks like so far:

The best part about this tree is that it is double sided…so I put the first half of the ornaments on the front and then I put the second half of the ornaments on the back. This is my little advent table. I have my advent wreath and a christmas countdown next to it.

Above the table I have two shelves full of my Christmas Village houses. I’m hoping next year I’ll live somewhere I can spread them out on a more square surface lower to the ground so it looks more village like and less crowded.

 

And for fun here is a photo of our finished Christmas tree (minus the monorail I put up after this photo was taken). Funny story my cousin sent me a photo of her christmas tree so I sent her this one and she told me that there was something wrong with my tree…because there was a cat under it! HAHAHA

Another thing I have been doing and very proud that I have been keeping up with it is coloring my Advent Calendar. I have been doing this the last 3 Lents/Advents but I did not do a very good job last Lent or Advent keeping up with it. I found this calendar here and you can download them and see the authors progress…as you can see I have just colored in each day a different color the originator writes words or draws pictures in each spot. But that is the best part of this kind of calendar there are no rules so you can put what you feel called to do in each spot whether it is very simple or very elaborate.

On Tuesday I saw the movie, Mary of Nazareth. It was an AWESOME movie! If you see a screening in your city go see it! I will warn you it is a little on the long side (2 hours and 40 minutes) but it was a great movie none the less. I think it’s even better than The Passion (but you didn’t hear that from me). The coolest part of this movie is it starts from when Mary is about 8 years old until right after Jesus’ Resurrection.

 

Advent would not be complete without some holiday baking. So far we have made Chocolate Chip Cookies, Italian Cookies, and Butter Cookies.

 

We still have a few more things we are going to make. My mom wants to attempt to make a Ricotta Pie, I want to make a Cheesecake, and then we have to make homemade Ravioli’s for our Christmas Dinner. But all the shopping is just about done. I even bought all the fish for our Feast of the 7 Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve..it’s kind of expensive to buy 7 different fish dishes for 2-4 people but it’s weird to not have fish on Christmas Eve. The things we do for Traditions 🙂

The history behind the Feast of the 7 Fishes is really interesting. According to this link Christmas Eve used to be celebrated as a very penitential day and people didn’t eat meat until after they received communion at midnight mass. It sounds like Christmas Eve used to be celebrated the same way Good Friday is still celebrated today. Imagine that!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Advent and if you haven’t done much I challenge you to do something Adventy (yes I made that word up) in the last week to prepare for the birth of Jesus.