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This past week I worked on the trees that would be added to our Advent calendar. I loved creating each one of these, I made a forest!
And our angel happily journeys along the starry path.
For this week I should be working on some little animals. But... I need to be making actual Christmas gifts too, so I am thinking we may have to add a few wooden animals for this Sunday and next year I can make some little wool sheep and a donkey. Of course Mary cannot wait, I better get started on her soon!
So we had our nice quiet Advent Sunday. This week we baked gingersnaps, a beginning to our holiday cookie baking. And the girls left some out for St. Nicholas, even though they know his horse would probably have preferred a carrot.
We have read St. Nicholas stories for the past few years but we never did much to actually celebrate the day, the girls never left out their shoes and we never did any gifts on this day. This year though the girls really wanted to leave out their shoes to see if St. Nicholas might pay a visit.
I wasn't sure what kind of ideas Chloe had in her head about this. At ten years old was she really going to just suddenly believe that St. Nicholas made an appearance? We actually thought it would be obvious that he did not.
We got a couple oranges from the store and tiny pieces of sesame candy for St. Nicholas to leave in their shoes. But we also had a bigger surprise...My mom got the girls new boots for Christmas, but we decided since it is already so cold and snowy that it would be nice for them to have them sooner. It seemed like a perfect St. Nicholas gift.
So the girls left out their old shoes and found new boots in the morning! We were not trying to trick them into thinking St. Nicholas left the boots, we told them that Grandma was St. Nicholas' helper. They accepted that, and did not even question who left the orange and the candy. Those were obviously from St. Nicholas. He ate his cookies too.
I love how simply and joyfully our children accepted this bit of magic into their day!
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It sure wasn't looking all that wintery around here.
So much snow it's a bit astonishing!
Requires contemplation..
Probably tastes good?
Meant to be played in..
Making us all very happy!
I do hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Thanks so much for all the sweet birthday wishes and emails! I will be catching up with belated Christmas post soon.
And now we're off into the New Year! Wishing you all a very happy one!!!
Mary brought big smiles when the girls saw her Sunday morning.
Our little angel even found a nice spot to hover above everyone, guiding all with her shining star of course.
This Sunday the animals gathered around our spiral. I did actually make one needle felted sheep, but it was barely finished late the night before and I decided it was probably best to stick with my plan of making the animals next year. So for now we added as many of our wooden animals as we could fit and I really like the look of it, quite festive!
Much of our Sunday was occupied by St. Lucia preparations. Chloe made the Lucia buns all by herself. I should have taken a picture of them, so pretty with their nice "S" shape.
A sweet moment while Chloe was trying on her Lucia gown.
And the beautiful Lucia child who greeted us this morning. Thankfully not quite as early as last year...
We made the St. Lucia crown last year. This year I thought I might make Chessa a little star crown or wand, so she could be a Star Child accompanying Lucia. But Chloe really wanted the morning to be a surprise for everyone so she convinced Chessa to stay in bed with us while she made tea and set the table with the buns. (She cleaned the kitchen counters too, she knows that is always the first morning chore...) I guess I didn't really have the time to make a star crown anyhow, definitely next year though.
2004 ~ Our last Christmas with Grandpa George
He liked trains. And other neat old stuff.
This past week I worked on the trees that would be added to our Advent calendar. I loved creating each one of these, I made a forest!
And our angel happily journeys along the starry path.
Winter is a most beautiful picture book. Christmas Stories Together has many very sweet stories that we will be reading all month long.
Oh that little Tomten, wandering about in dark winter night, watching over the sleeping farm. 
Wonderful Elsa Beskow. I was happy to discover that our nearby library has Peter and Lotta's Christmas, we have never read that one before, I will surprise the girls with it soon.
Because if I am actually sitting I am much more likely to be knitting than reading. Now on to Chloe's legwarmers, the pink ones are finished for Chessa. I am happy to be knitting something that will keep the girls nice and warm.
Because it has been so very cold. Snowy and beautiful, but temperatures have even gone below zero, and 30'ish is probably an average high. Sigh...
Happy beautiful winter season to all!