We're Thankful for Our Jesse Tree

 

I did find the good paper.  So we're faithfully putting our pictures on it.  The paper underneath is a list of ways God has blessed us today.  It ranges from fun (pie) to serious (good health, each other, God's presence, hope) to those things that we take for granted (indoor plumbing).  

While I would love to have lengthy family dinners every night where we carry out our Christmas traditions, that doesn't happen every night.  On Mondays and Tuesdays we have to eat in shifts because we have back to back ballet classes from 4:45 until 7:30.  While I know we could make the girls quit dancing, they love it!  And their dance classes give our homeschooled daughters some much needed interaction with other girls.  Faith especially is learning so much from seeing how difficult a worldly life can be as she sees some of her classmates choices and consequences.  

All that to say that our Jesse Tree devotional was done during commercials while we were watching The Waltons after Faith came home from dance.  But we did it.  I enjoyed that time, and I hope the girls did, too. Maybe learning about Jesus in the midst of daily life is even more meaningful than the idealized picture of the perfect family that sometimes invades my mind.