Monday, December 22, 2008

Winter Solstice

We had such a beautiful, fun, joyous Winter Solstice day!! The kids opened their stockings and gifts first thing in the morning. They were all so excited to get the wooden bows and arrows that they have been wishing for! These were beautifully made and they have already been played with so much... After breakfast and lots more play time (and some nap time for Nova), we made wish bread. We roll sweet dough into small balls and make a wish on each one. The kids wished for a nice garden in the Spring time with lots of watermelons, for snow to come to our town, for peace in the World. Lots of silly wishes, too, ofcourse! When all of the dough balls are layered into the loaf pan, Tim poured brown sugar glaze over the whole thing and we let it rise for another 45 minutes. Then, into the oven & when it comes out we have a sweet pull-apart loaf to share at our Solstice potluck. Our potluck was really sweet this year. We had a smaller group of guests than usual - all members of our Waldorf playgroup. Tim made a beautiful evergreen spiral for the kids to walk. The pictures cannot do it justice. He tucked big white tufts of pampas grass and red berries into the evergreens. After a lantern walk around the yard, Clover and Autumne read this verse from The Festival of Stones, one of our favorite Fall & Winter books. Clover read the first verse, Autumne read the second, and they read the third together: Bless this candle/ Burning bright,/ Bless its shining/ In the night. Bless the boughs/ Upon the ground,/ Bless the path/ That spirals round. Bless our tread,/ So strong and stout,/ Bless our winding/ In and out. Then, all of the kids (and some of the adults, myself included) walked the spiral while Tim played another song on the dulcimer. On the way back out, they left their lantern somewhere along the spiral (mostly right in the middle!), so that when the walk was done the spiral was beautifully lit with flickering little lights.



After the spiral walk, lots of the kids were interested in the hammer dulcimer. Tim let them try playing it one by one. Some of the smaller ones retrieved their lanterns and walked around some more. Slowly, everyone said goodbyes and headed for home. After one more look at our beautiful Advent wreath, Clover was able to rest. It was after midnight when she finally went to sleep.




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