Our Second Week of Advent

I have found it interesting to be having many of the other special days in December occurring on Sundays... so each Sunday when we have our little advent celebration we are also celebrating St. Nicholas, or for next week, St. Lucia! So the St. Nicholas part of our day was not much more than a story and special cookies in the afternoon. I had though about giving them their winter dresses as a gift for that day, but then I realized that I was not remembering our tradition of them receiving their dresses for the winter solstice. We did decide that next year we will make honey cake and have apples and nuts. And the girls would like to leave out their shoes and see if they perhaps get an orange, or even chocolate.

In the evening we read more Tiptoes Lightly... the Festival of Plants. (Actually I have to pause and tell you about the chapter before... Jeremy Mouse meets the spirit of the olive tree. She weaves the life of the tree. I really love it.) So then there is the festival of plants, and they all gather together and say the Plant Blessing, and then they plant the Year Tree, and then they dance the Weaving Dance.

And we now have pine cones on our nature table, and two dried flowers that I always think are wintry with their whiteness.

Oh yes, and the Snow Queen visited the fairies the night before the festival,

and the girls would tell you that King Winter has arrived here!

They were playing outside nearly half of the day. I almost got pictures during the day... but it didn't quite happen. Snow in the dark evening is nice too though.

(I think there is an inch or two more since I took this picture just a while ago...)

(It was fun taking the snowy pictures in the dark...)


It is really becoming winter...