Our Advent Tree

For many years we have done the straw-in-the-manger thing, where we fill a rustic basket (our make-do manger) with pieces of straw for each good deed done or sacrifice made during Advent. We've used both real straw and cut-out strips of yellow paper. The idea is to build a soft bed of hay for the infant Jesus, represented at our house by a baby doll.

Well, our kids are older, and this year we're trying something different: We're setting up our tree as an Advent tree, as we bought lots of purple ornaments at some ridiculously low price a few years back. And for every good deed or sacrifice made, the kids can hang an ornament. As Acrobat said, "So if the tree isn't pretty, it means we should be doing more!" You got it!

What if we run out of ornaments? Well, I hope we will! And then I think we'll make small bows out of purple and pink ribbons and place them on the tree. I'll be sure to post pictures later, when we've made some progress.