Join me for a Pinterest Party every first Tuesday of the month as we link up and pin it, create it, and inspire others to do the same. Recipes and crafty ideas are encouraged but think outside the box too. Think organizing ideas, birthday themes, a cute outfit, a new hairstyle, marriage tips, life inspiration, traveling destinations, a great quote – anything you’d post to Pinterest.

Show us how you didn’t just pin it but brought it to life!

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin in to our own boards. Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for a month so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. 🙂 (If you want to grab the button, scroll to the bottom.)

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This month’s Pinterest Party is a special Advent and Christmas edition! Share with us your Advent traditions, your favorite Christmas cookie recipe or any anything else related to the holidays!

My contribution to the party this month is the Jesse Tree. Last year I posted about our favorite Advent family activities but one item not on the list was the Jesse Tree. I have to be honest with you, I always felt intimidated to do the Jesse Tree but in reality it’s not really that complicated.

If you aren’t familiar with the Jesse Tree, Loyola Press explains it the way:

Jesse was the father of King David. The Jesse tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The ornaments of the Jesse tree tell the story of God in the Old Testament, connecting the Advent season with the faithfulness of God across four thousand years of history.

The Jesse tree helps us to connect the custom of decorating Christmas trees to the events leading to Jesus’ birth. We adorn a Jesse tree with illustrated ornaments that represent people, prophesies, and the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.

Each day there is a Scripture/Bible Story and an ornament with a simple symbol of the story. (ie. an apple for Adam and Eve, an ark for the story of Noah, etc.) You read the Scripture (or paraphrase to your kids) and hang the symbol on your tree. By the end of Advent you have an overview of salvation history ending with the birth of Christ.

The reason I decided to give it a try this year was because Jenna at Blessed Is She decided to make Jesse Tree cards and devotions available for purchase. She asked me to do a few of the reflections on the cards and I agreed. That meant that I needed to really read and reflect on the Jesse Tree symbols. Some were familiar to me but there were a few where I thought, “Who the heck is that? I don’t remember reading that Bible story!” In the end, I learned more about our salvation history and how to apply the lessons learned to my life. I am eager to take this Advent to go through the rest of the Jesse Tree symbols that I haven’t studied yet.

Next I had to figure out how to display the cards. I didn’t really have room to hang them up so I placed them on a mini easel at our family room’s sacred space. (Visit this post to see other sacred spaces in our home.)

Although, I like to use the BIS cards for my personal use, I wanted the kids to have their own little symbols. Since I am doing the Waiting in the Word: A Mother’s Advent Journey scripture study, one of the authors (Nancy at Do Small Things with Love.com) gave us Jesse Tree symbols that can be cut out and colored. (You can purchase a download of the same symbols for just $3 here.)

I thought it was great for the kids. Now I just needed something to hang them on. I thought this bare lit tree I bought at Target last year would work perfectly.

I think it rounds off our little family room space perfectly. (For the post about our Advent/ Acts of Love calendar visit here. For the post about filling Jesus’ crib, visit here.)

Are you trying something new this Advent? If not, what is your favorite Advent activity? How about your favorite Christmas tradition? If you are a blogger, link up. If you are on periscope, add the link to your Advent/Christmas scope. If you aren’t on either, share in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. 🙂

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Want to share this on Pinterest? Here’s a ready-made pin. 🙂

Want to follow me on Pinterest? Find me at pinterest.com/bobbi_rol.

Want me to follow you? Leave your Pinterest handle in the comments. 🙂

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I’m linking up this post with sweet Jess and Kate over at Sweet Little Ones Blog.com for this week’s Tuesday Talk. 🙂 Go check out their blog. There’s plenty of good stuff to read! (Now I’m going to bake cookies. Those recipes sound delicious!)

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation or inspiration, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

<a href=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pinterest_logo_new_640.jpg”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-6848″ src=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pinterest_logo_new_640.jpg” alt=”pinterest_logo_new_640″ width=”500″ height=”397″ /></a>

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active for a month. Have fun!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

PPS – Disclaimer: “Revolution of Love.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.”

In other words, if you click on my affiliated links and make a purchase, I get a small compensation that goes towards keeping the blog online. Big hugs to those who click and help support the blog! xoxo 🙂