Advent: Day 5

This is one of our two Advent seasonal tables. The beautiful cascading silk was hand-dyed with natural dyes by Syrendell. If you are looking for soft and artistically dyed silks, they have an amazing selection and do beautiful custom orders. I have a few silks I bought elsewhere, but they are nowhere near as soft or as beautiful as the ones from this creative family.

I needle felted a large, Old World Father Christmas with beautiful wool from Peace Fleece.

And on our other Advent seasonal table, we made a lovely Star Ladder inspired by a craft in the amazing book, All Year Round. Instead of using a blue ribbon, though, we cut strips of felt and sewed them together. And instead of star stickers, we cut star shapes out of felt and stitched them on as such.

Each day, the little angel travels down a star until she reaches the last one on Christmas Eve when we will then light our star candle at the bottom. We decorated the table with moss, evergreens, our Christmas gnomes and some beautiful crystals and rocks.

The angel is made out of tissue paper and wool. Needle felt a small ball and place it inside of a piece of tissue paper with rounded corners (see tutorial below). Tie string around the neck and twist the sides to make hands. Then attach the wings and you can either use a pin to move her down the star ladder or tape.

I also wanted to share our enchanting eco-twig house, beautifully hand made by the artist Rick Tan at Syrendell. It is made out of twigs from his yard, along with reclaimed fencing. We added the moss and the straw and it awaits our weary travelers on Christmas Eve. We will be adding to our nature table each Sunday in Advent.

Our quartz crystal was added here to represent the minerals on the 1st Sunday in Advent.

Last night, our special book pulled from our Christmas book basket was "Room for a Little One", purchased by the girls Gramy, which is a very sweet tale about the animals making room for each other and the Christ child on that special eve.

And for our Advent reading today, we shared another amazing story from "Christmas Roses: Legends for Advent". The story was entitled "The Old Woman Who Wanted a Gnome in Her Home" by the gifted story teller Jeanna Oterdahl. In the story, the old woman learns that only through giving of herself to someone else in need, would her house become a real home, complete with that special gnome.

Finally, for our December 3rd St. Nicholas Story, we enjoyed yet another fantastic tale by Christine Natale called, "Bishop Nicholas and the Family". I absolutely love the focus of the stories in this series, which is on the act of giving, rather than receiving. It is befitting and so needed in this season.

Our little St. Nicholas has found a nice home in the Advent wreath by the rose quartz crystal. He seems to be enjoying the stories about him. Elena and I finished our verse which I took from Wynstone's Winter book. Charley still has to finish hers, but I thought I would post pictures of them to sign us off for today!

It is absolutely amazing to me to see how in such a short time, the girls have learned to use the block crayons with such comfort and today, Elena decided to draw her own vision of St. Nicholas. I think it turned out much better than mine :D

Kind old man, St. Nicholas dear,

Come to our house this year.

Here's some straw and here's some hay

For your little donkey grey.

Pray put something in my shoe,

I've been good the whole year through,

Kind old man, St. Nicholas dear,

Come to our house this year.

~From Germany: Wynstone's Winter book

Advent: Day 4

We have several *stations* set up at our house this holiday season. This display is on one of our two seasonal tables. It is a piece of a Christmas tree we obtained last year, where the owner of a tree lot allowed us to take as many of the sawed off discs as we wanted for a crafting day with homeschooling friends. We surrounded it with moss and a large quartz crystal to represent the mineral kingdom. We will light a beeswax candle in the center on Christmas Eve.

Today, we made Snickerdoodle cookies. My plan is to make a batch of cookies each day of the week to freeze and then give cookie plates to our dearest friends and family. Most of them will be flown to Chicago for a final Christmas party held at my Gran's old home as we celebrate her life on Christmas Eve, which would have been her 92nd birthday.

So here is the recipe for the cookies (we make ours without dairy products or eggs, but I will list my recipes with traditional ingredients - feel free to substitute as needed):

Snickerdoodle Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

CINNAMON/SUGAR COATING:

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and then add the dry ingredients and mix well. Chill the dough for 3 hours. Then shape it into walnut-sized balls and roll in the cinnamon/sugar coating. Bake at 400 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 8-10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

The girls loved them and were sneaking dough as often as they could, so I think we're going to have to make another batch lest these all disappear before our cookie gifting!

For our Advent reading, we are enjoying stories from this lovely collection called, "Christmas Roses: Legends for Advent". I so wish the matching Advent calendar wasn't out of print, but alas it is (if anyone knows where I can find one, please do let me know in the comments section).

Last night, I read "Why God Created Man" by Dan Lindholm.

This morning, the girls opened the next window in their Advent calendar, moved the angel down a star on the ladder (post with pictures about this soon)! And I read the next story in the anthology which is by Jeanna Oterdahl, called "The Troll Who Wanted to be Human".

It is a lovely tale of learning what it takes to be a true human being as the troll learns to think of others first and helps them in their endeavors, all the while, slowly losing his ugly troll qualities and becoming a human being. He is welcomed into the community on Christmas Eve with the help of a loving young girl who has opened her heart to the real meaning of unconditionally loving others.

Incidentally, the book has been rewritten by Thomas Berger with lovely illustrations and is being put out by Floris Books here. We will be reading Mr. Berger's version tonight before bed and this is sure to become an annual favorite in our home.

And I am going to be listing some other classics as we read them by the fire in the evenings. Does anyone remember this sweet old book, "Santa Mouse"? Oh my gosh, it was one of my favorites growing up. Not a complicated book, but sweet and simple with adorable illustrations of the cutest little mouse. Young children will adore it! Barnes and Noble has republished it and sells the hardcover for a very nice price...

I should mention that we had little white mice as children and of course, my baby brother John named his mouse, "Santa Mouse" after this cute book!

During the day, we worked on our verse books after listening to the Dec 2nd story by Christine Natale, "Bishop Nicholas" in preparation for St. Nick's Day.

Tonight, we'll also be telling a story from the Johanson book, "Stories for the Festivals of the Year" entitled: "The Promise to the Little Ox". I haven't needle felted the girls Oxen yet, so I have to get on that right now - lol! Pictures to follow soon, I hope! :D

Advent: Day 3

"In giving to others, you'll find yourself blessed."

Today, we baked our Ciastka Miodowe cookies in celebration of St. Nicholas. We let them "rest" overnight and finished them this morning.

We then sat down to begin our lessons.

Today, I shared the WONDERFUL first story in Christine Natale's touching collection called "The Little Boy Nicholas" and the girls absolutely loved it. It really moved all of us and both of them were excited to see just what young Nicholas would come up with next to help each child in need. It prompted a positive discussion on giving and how it makes the giver feel when s/he shares or provides for someone else in need.

We also began working in our Verse book and will be finishing the verse up first before drawing our pictures of St. Nick. Will share that soon.

For our Advent reading tonight, we will be continuing with Irene Johnanson's "Stories for the Festivals of the Year" with the next Christmas story entitled: "Why the Sheep Looked Forward to Christmas" and it tells the story of a single night in Mary's journey to see her cousin, Elizabeth, who was with child at an elderly age. The night is cold. Mary stops to rest and the nearby woolly sheep see a divine glow around her so they lie down around the pregnant Mary to keep her and the Baby inside of her warm. Afterwards, an angel comes to the sheep and bestows a gift unto them, sharing a joyful secret that they keep.

Last year, the girls received needle felted Nativity animals that I made to accompany the stories. Those sheep will come out tonight. We got the donkeys out last night.

I am still waiting for our Mary's Little Donkey Advent Calendar, but when it arrives, we will be sharing an Advent story in the morning and one at night, as well. There are just so many wonderful stories out there - it's really hard not to bombard!

So until tomorrow, have a blessed night!

Advent : Day 2

Kind old man,

St. Nicholas dear,

Come to our house this year.

Here's some straw

and here's some hay

For your little donkey grey.

~Wynstone's "Winter"

Day 2 of Advent brought some lovely activities. We had family visiting us from Washington so today was a light day. I had scheduled a *break* from our normal schooling during the entire month of December. We will still be holding our schooling during the week, but we've decided to focus on the importance of the holiday season and partaking in the many activities during this special time of year.

This week, we are doing a Main Lesson Block on St. Nicholas. I had visited a lovely site about St. Nicholas in the past, but had not gone through it in detail. However, thanks to yet another great post by Jenn over at Our Little Nature Nest, we now have our stories all lined up this week! She recommended several that are Waldorf inspired or written by Waldorf teachers that we will be using until we celebrate St. Nick's special day.

The first story I told during lunch after our company left can be found here. It tells how the Bishop Nicholas traveled by sea for seven days and seven nights just to feed hungry children, by leaving them apples and nuts, wheat and honey cakes.

We snacked on the apples and nuts while we prepared the batter for some yummy "Ciastka Miodow" Polish honey cake cookies that we will be eating tomorrow in celebration, though we modify the ingredients so they are vegan. The recipe can be found here, third one down.

For our Advent reading tonight, I chose the first Christmas story from the book by Irene Johanson entitled, "Stories for the Festivals of the Year". It can be found at Bob & Nancy's.

The first story is entitled, "The Donkey's Secret" and it is about the Annunciation and how the donkey was able to see and listen to an Angel, even when Joseph could not. The angel praises the donkey and reveals a secret to him about the upcoming birth of the Christ child.

Finally, I needle felted a St. Nicholas figure to accompany our stories of him this week. We are still in the midst of decorating our house and tree and are enjoying snuggling up together to read the myriad of holiday books we have collected through the years. I hope to post about them as we continue daily with this blog.

Enjoy the last day of November 2009! Tomorrow we begin the Advent calendars which is always fun. I also hope to share a special new tradition we are partaking in this year. Blessings to you all!

Advent Celebrations Begin!

This painting is by Flemish artist Jean Bellegambe (1480-ca. 1535). It is entitled "Saint Anne Conceiving the Virgin Mary".

To me, this painting signifies so much as we honor the gift of life and honor the Mother who brought the Christ child into this world. This year, I chose to began our Advent season by honoring my own mother and my Grandmother who just passed away. Saint Anne was Jesus' grandmother and this tied into the Advent story we read.

First of all, we begin the first Sunday in Advent and prepare for the Light. I am so excited about this time of year with so many wonderful festivities and celebrations centered around the heart of family.

We made our Advent wreath over the weekend and I'd love to share it with you!

I bought a very inexpensive ring from the craft shop and our colored candles. This year, we will also light a white candle in the middle on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ.



Tony clipped branches off of our evergreens and we collected pine cones and berries to decorate. There are many meanings to each living thing placed on the wreath. The circle itself represents the endlessness of God with no beginning and no end. The live branches represent continuous life - the cedar branches represent strength and healing, the pine represents immortality, the pine cones symbolize life and resurrection and the holly reminds us of the crown of thorns.

On Sunday, we said a special blessing and lit the first of the purple candles. The first light of Advent is the light of stones so we placed special crystals throughout our seasonal areas (more on those as the weeks unfold).

Here is my favorite Rose Quartz crystal.

Each evening, by candlelight we are reading a special story for Advent. We began last night with a beautiful story by Selma Lagerlof from her lovely book, "The Emperor's Vision and other Christ Legends" called "The Holy Night" in which she remembers a priceless moment at a very young age, when her Grandmother stayed with her alone on Christmas morning and told her this tale of the birth of Jesus. I felt it was a perfect way to begin our Advent season after the passing of my own dear Grandmother.

The tale begins as such:

"When I was five years old I had such a great sorrow! I hardly know if I have had a greater since.

It was then my grandmother died. Up to that time, she used to sit every day on the corner sofa in her room, and tell stories.

I remember that grandmother told story after story from morning till night, and that we children sat beside her, quite still, and listened. It was a glorious life! No other children had such happy times as we did."

Such begins the tale...So as this Advent begins, I can't help but think of my Gran, sitting on the girls bed as we read and celebrate this special time with the telling of wonderful stories...

Have a blessed Advent season!