Our First Advent Activity, Tree Day

Well it is the season of advent and we started a little earlier than usual this year. All three of us were going to be home with no plans the day before Thanksgiving so we had our Tree Day a little early this year. This was our first advent activity of the season. Ever since I was a little girl Tree Night, although we did Tree Day this year, was a very special event. We would eat dinner together, back then we would go pick out our real Christmas tree, go home and set it up and decorate it while we ate sausage balls, cookies and other snack foods and watched a Christmas movie. I’ve carried this tradition on into my own family ever since Justin and I got married. So we got up and Justin and Ava made the sausage balls together. Then while Justin pulled all of the decorations out of the attic, Ava and I made my mom’s M&M cookies, my favorites! Ava was a great helper especially when it came to putting the M&M’s on although I think she got a lot more in her mouth than on the cookies! After our treats were ready we started hanging ornaments on the tree, always a sentimental moment for me as I reflect on all the memories the ornaments hold- childhood memories, our first year married, our first home, our trip to NY, my first marathon, Ava Kate’s first Christmas, etc. Ava even helped hang a few ornaments although she is still having a hard time understanding that the ornaments are supposed to stay on the tree. In fact I often find a few ornaments sitting on the tree skirt when I’m picking up the house at night, I wonder how they got there! After we got the tree decorated, Ava and I set up the nativity, one of my favorite Christmas decorations and we talked about baby Jesus and all of the people that were there the night of His birth. We finished decorating the rest of the house and Justin even hung the outside lights and then we all sat down to watch Elf together. And now it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Jarrett house!