rainbow gnome

Clover made a rainbow gnome! She knitted the whole thing, stitched it up and stuffed it with a minimal amount of instruction from me!




Isn't it cute?

Christmas

We spent Christmas with family. My brother Jay is in town from Boston, so for the first time in a few years we were all together on Christmas Eve for cookie baking at Mimi and Grandad's house...





I always want to take a million pictures when I'm visiting Mimi and Grandad's house....




We baked cookies and made caramels for gift-giving...


Our gift to the birds is always the same thing: pinecone bird feeders. They get to enjoy a Winter treat, and we enjoy watching them eat it! This year, we have a special little visitor: the ruby-crowned Kinglet. We also have lots of wrens, sparrows, chickadees, titmice, and cardinals.


Christmas = Family = Love

Winter Solstice

Wonderful, peaceful Winter Solstice celebration at home. The kids woke up early (but not too early) to discover gifts in stockings and under the tree!




Clover had gifts for me, Tim, and Charlotte. I got a beautiful beaded pillow, Tim got a poem, and Charlotte got a knitted apron and a new hat and scarf. The boys enjoyed hearing Tim's poem over and over.



We made wish bread, a delicious and fun family tradition!

And admired the beautiful Solstice sunshine. It was freezing cold outside, but we played for a little while before returning to the fire.



After chicken pot pie for dinner, we added Mother Night and her Sun Child to the Advent garden, and the children had a lantern procession from the dining room table to the playroom (where the Advent garden lives). I told a story in the dark about the birth of the Sun from Mother Night. We were all so tired and happy afterwards. Bedtime was welcomed.




We left the star above our Advent garden burning late into the night, casting Light out into the darkness - a symbol of hope.

Solstice celebration

Since Winter Solstice fell on a Monday this year, we decided to have our Waldorf co-op celebration on Sunday night. This was particularly great for my family since the Winter Faery visits our house on Winter Solstice Eve and leaves gifts. Having friends over for a potluck and spiral walk made bedtime much easier. They were so tired by nightfall that it took about five minutes for everyone to fall asleep!

Tim and Willow made the spiral with evergreen boughs and pampas grass. The pampas grass is so hard to see in a picture, but on the actual spiral it is so beautiful - it looks like big white feathers! Clover, Indigo, and Nova helped me inside with cleaning and food preparation.



When friends arrived, we had a wonderful potluck. There was (as always) so much wonderful food! Everyone ate, had warm drinks, and ran around outside playing in the dark. Tim lit a big fire outside, and brought the hammer dulcimer out to be played while the kids walked the spiral. We went on a lantern walk through the woods.



The kids lined up with their lanterns at the beginning of the spiral. Clover said the spiral verse from the Festival of Stones by Reg Down, and Tim played on the dulcimer while everyone walked. It was a beautiful but much more excitable walk than usual. The kids were just so excited to be outside by a roaring fire walking around with little glass jars of fire, that there was a little wildness! When everyone was done walking, the lanterns looked so incredibly beautiful glowing on the spiral.





As I walked around the spiral holding Nova who was holding his lantern, I gave a silent thanks for the winding inward that Winter so generously offers, I thanked the Sun for the return of his Light, I thanked the Universe in all of its beautiful glory for my family, my friends, my home. I wished for peace during this amazing holiday season, for unity with all of our brothers and sisters, for continued good health. Blessings on all families everywhere!!

craftiness and baking fun

I finally finished Willow's hat this morning. He wanted to try it on when I was almost done. And ofcourse Nova had to try it on, too. He loves to try on anything with sharp points sticking out of the sides!


We did some holiday baking - Clover made little blueberry muffins and the boys made chocolate cut-out cookies.





I showed the boys how to make holiday trees by cutting out three triangles and pasting them together. We are going to run yarn through the tops tomorrow and make ornaments!