December 1st...The Journey Begins...

The Holy Family

I have several favorite Christmas traditions that we started years ago when we first began our Waldorf inspired journey.  One of them is our Descending Angel Calendar that is very easy to make.  I can't even remember where I first saw it, but it is very easy to make, stores easily, and is fun for children. 

Here is how: I used felt and cut four long strips and sewed them together (the dark blue).  Then I cut out 26 gold stars - one of them you can see at the top, which is larger and represents the guiding star and then 25 smaller ones which go all the way to about 2 inches from the bottom strip.  The little angel can be made out of tissue paper with wool rolled up in the shape of a ball to form the head.  You can either use a pin or tape to move her down each star for each passing day.  Eventually, ours will stand upright on the stars as the remaining section of the strip is on the table itself.  Here is our angel on the first star for December 1st!

One of my other favorite traditions which begins on December 1st is to prepare the way for the Holy Family and their journey to the stable.  I absolutely cherish my beautiful manger, which has also served as a set for many of our schooling stories, as well as a structure for the girls freeplay.  It was handmade by Rick Tan of Syrendell as a custom order.  Jennifer and Rick are two of my favorite people in the waldorf circle and have so many talents.  I have always been thrilled with their creations!

Pinecones that you can collect with your children are always fun to represent nature and trees in storytelling.  Rocks are also beautiful and add to a nature table.

In the past, I have used pieces of evergreen branches for our spiral, but this year, I wanted to try using our dried moss.  The evergreen branches sometimes slide on the silks (also hand dyed by Syrendell), but the moss tends to grab at fibers more, so I think if we bump into the table, our spiral won't slide out of place this year...we'll see :)  I also love the look of it.

Interesting note of Ancient Hearth history - the Joseph doll was my very first needle felting creation.  I had no training, but used to oogle the beautiful dolls I would see, so I gave it a whirl and voila!  I will always cherish these primitive figures.  There is something special about the simplicity of them.

Below is the base of my Descending Angel Calendar.  Once she reaches the last star on the morning of the 25th, we light our beeswax candle and take a moment to reflect on the many blessings we share and the beautiful soul born 'this day' so long ago...

So the journey for 2012 begins today and we begin to try to quiet our innerselves to prepare for all that this month brings!  Tomorrow, we light our first candle of Advent as it 'officially' begins. 

P.S. Don't forget to start your St. Nicholas stories today, if you are celebrating the Festival of St. Nick!

Sorry to be MIA...Bdays and Family Time

Life has been keeping us so busy lately that I've taken a break from blogging. I'm almost caught up and eager to share what we've been up to, but not today. I want to mention that I have several comments that I haven't published yet with wonderful awards that I'm so flattered to receive. I will blog about them as soon as I can and thank every one who sent some love my way :)

In the meantime, my baby girls turned 8 in Feb! My mom flew out from Chicago and spent about 3 weeks in California to attend a lavish wedding of my cousin who got married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in San Francisco, followed by a reception at The Palace Hotel where many VIP's have stayed at this historical hotel. Will blog some pictures about that later. It was gorgeous there!

In the meantime, we had two different bouts of the tummy flu blow through our home (coupled with a broken washing machine with parts on back order - ugh) and ended up having a very mellow b-day for the twins. They haven't finished opening their gifts yet because we kept getting hit with illnesses and family obligations. But here is a glimpse at our store bought cake (I know...I know...) and a couple of special gifts they received this year.


Charley held up the "banana cake" for Elena to blow out the candles on since she was under the weather :) Yes, it is literally an opened banana with candles - lol!

A few special goodies...

They were thrilled to get a few Ostheimer horses to add to their collection and some used Ostheimers we found from a special mama who was ready to pass them along.

And I will be returning to the blogging world soon to share some lesson plans. Am excited to announce that my friend, Lisa, has something very special planned for everyone that I'm playing a tiny part in...and I will be bringing back my shop soon! I've missed working on projects, but had to take a much needed break.

Hugs to all my friends out there and hope to catch up with everyone soon! Happy weekend!

Christmas Heritage Traditions

Polish for "Merry Christmas"

This is a beautiful Polish doll brought back to me from Poland by my beloved grandparents, now both deceased. This doll, whom I named Karisha (Karen) is ever more precious to me now.

I am very fortunate to have been part of a family who is very grounded in tradition - the Polish side from me and now the Italian side from my husband. There are many aspects to how my Polish family celebrates the holidays and I'd like to share a little bit of how we celebrate ours across the miles...


There is a lovely children's book about how the Polish people celebrate Christmas called, "Marta and the Manger Straw".


It centers around the Polish tradition of taking a piece of straw from the church manger to keep with you which will bring *riches* throughout the new year. The riches are more than monetary, however. This story is about little Marta, who is very poor. She is given a piece of the manger straw and ends up giving pieces of it away to others who are more needy than she, until she has nothing left. Marta learns how the power of love and altruism comes back tenfold. It's a lovely lesson in giving.


Another custom is to place straw underneath the table cloth, symbolizing the humble beginnings of the Christ child. Straw is extremely symbolic to this culture and we decided to start a tradition of making our own straw star ornaments this year in honor of our Polish heritage.


Paper, Scissors, Stone sells Swedish straw which I had purchased earlier this year. The girls are, like most Americans, a mix of many cultures, including some Swedish, so it's all good :)


I remembered reading a nice tutorial on Syrendell last year about how they made straw garland. It can be found here.

So while the dogs were sleeping, the straw was soaking...


Farley (age 12.75)


Stanely (our current foster - age 10)


And the furbabies - Koda (9 months) & Jack (4.5 or so?)


This is a wonderful book, though I have since seen their crafts in other Christmas crafting books, including "Christmas in the Family". Both are wonderful, though the latter has more than just crafts.


Filling Babci's old pot that I brought back...


The girls put the pieces of straw in to soak...


Then, we cut them in half at an angle so that they would be pointed.

I had also attempted to iron them, but they would not flatten properly (might be the type of straw they are) so we decided to enjoy them as is.


We cut a piece of thread and placed it horizontally on the table.
We then placed the pieces of straw in the desired design.


After trial and error, I found it easiest with the children for me to hold the design with my finger and allow them to weave the thread up and over one, down and under the next, up and over, down and under, etc. Every once in a while, we'd knot it off and then alternate which pieces were up and over & which ones were down and under so that they were all secured.


And voila! Elena finished her 6 pointed star!


Karisha holds one of my stars!

Charley's turn...

Taaaa daaaaahhh!

They somehow make our tree complete!

Marta and the Manger Straw has a free unit study that can go along with the book, though I honestly wasn't too impressed, but I'm sure it can be embellished by all you wonderful homeschool mama's out there!

Homeschool Share's free unit study on this book can be found here.

Some other Polish traditions - this year we bought a Charlie Brown type silver tree. Every year for the past 60-70 years, Granny's (Babci's) silver tree was put up. See below for a picture of the real silver tree the last year it was put up when Babci was still alive. It is still being put up, but I wanted to have my own little one to remind me of my dear Granny Goose!

My silver tree...

Babci's silver tree (not finished decorating it)

More traditions...sauerkraut soup and sauerkraut pierogies

We are very fortunate to have my great grandmother's pierogie recipes, along with my great aunt dolly's and some yummy variants from Glos Polek - the Polish Women's Alliance out of Chicago, Illinois.

The girls & I make pierogies every year. This year, we made cheese & potato, froze them, and my aunt is flying them into Chicago this holiday for our extended family to enjoy!

We make them the way that great grandma made them...

After preparing the dough, roll out with a rolling pin until they are nice and thin.

Using a glass, you cut out the circular shapes (use a large rim).

Place the stuffing in - the trick is to have a lot of stuffing in a very thin shell. It is actually pretty challenging if you do it like the pros. That was my big criticism of my first batches - too much dough!

Stretch the dough over the filling.

Use the edge of a fork to close the edges. Make sure they are closed tightly or they will open when boiled and all the stuffing comes out (happened to me waaaaayy too many times!)

Finished, it should look like this...

Then place on wax paper and brush melted butter over them so that when you freeze them, they will not stick together. If you are eating immediately, you boil them until they rise to the top and then fry them in a frying pan with butter and enjoy!

This batch is headed to Chicago, along with a bunch of xmas cookies...Mmmmmm...

Lots of great links out there to Polish celebrations, which can turn into a wonderful cultural study for all you homeschoolers out there!

What are your Christmas Heritage Traditions?