jesse tree ornament exchange

Ornaments and crafting??  I'm in!

Our church decided to host an ornament exchange to follow along with the Jesse Tree advent tradition--each day in December, a scripture is read and an ornament is hung on the tree that traces the line of Jesus through the Bible until his birthday. 

I signed up for Day 4 -- which is tomorrow!  Originally I thought I would paint wooden camels, but those are notoriously hard to find.  Who knew?  So I went with this:

paper camels, a paper tent, and sand in a plastic fillable ornament.

Did I mention we had to make 25 of our chosen ornament?  It turns out 25 of anything can become quite tedious, but the best way to do it is assembly line style...cut out all the camels, cut out all the tents, put on all the washi tape, then give a job to each family member to complete the ornament.

We fell in love with these.  The element of sand makes them captivating, and I loved watching the children's little hands hold the ornament and tilt it side to side as the sand moved.  (Another tip: do not use glass ornaments.  First of all, they break.  But secondly, sticking your finger in the top to get the paper in can leave you with a sliver of glass in your finger.  Ask me how I know. )

But just to add to the stress of making 25 ornaments on a deadline, I signed up for Day 21, too.  The exchange was opened up for another 25 people, but there weren't enough to sign up so some of us made extra. 

Day 21 is described as a brick wall.  There are lots of cute options on pinterest, but on the second go round, I needed to be more thrifty.

I started looking for scrapbook paper that had bricks on it.  I knew there had to be some somewhere.  Score at the third store I went to!

These ornaments are made with a cheap wooden square from joann's.  Juan Pablo showed me how to  use a pocket knife to make the hole for the string...so we didn't even need to break out the drill.  I Mod Podged the paper on, added glitter to the wooden edge, and for a little jingle, the bell at the top.

Again, everyone had a hand at making these, which for me was the most important part.  At one point, Isabela, JP, and I were sitting around the table working, and I noticed Diego was playing on the computer.  I asked, "Diego, don't you want to come do glitter?" and was surprised when I got an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

He came over, added glitter to one ornament, then ran back to the computer.  We all laughed...one was all he needed to do for his happiness.

 So far, it looks like only Isabela and I are enjoying reading the scriptures and hanging the ornaments.  What's not to like? Each is unique and specially made by someone from our church.  It's like opening a present every day!

We must be living with a bunch of scrooges, but we are not deterred.  Christmas is coming!