We each took turns reading the passages from the Bible
(tonight's was: Isaiah 11:1-10 and 1 Samuel 16:1-13).
Tonight was the first night for the Jesse Tree. I've heard about it for a few years, but we've never taken the time to do it ourselves. The first family that I saw had handcrafted all of these beautiful ornaments and I was a little intimidated by the time put into it. But, this year our church printed paper copies of the ornaments so it's a lot more practical for this working mom to do! ;)
The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots." It's a way to encourage our family to focus on the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas.