Advent has arrived!  For those who celebrate this religious tradition, Waldorf has found a lovely way to tie it into the earth, as well.  We begin with the Light of Stones...

 

Carrie from The Parenting Passageway wrote a beautiful and detailed post on the first week of Advent in relation to Waldorf and how she and her family celebrate.  It can be seen here.

 

 

In our family, we make our own Advent wreath from branches in our yard, pine cones we have collected, acorn caps, and this year, we rolled red holly balls from our wool roving.  My daughters, who are now 10 years old (OMG) made the wreath this year with minimal help from Mom :)

 

 

Several years ago, I created a basic tutorial, which can be seen here. 

 

 

The twins tied the branches to the frame with twine.

 

 

I got out some special gifts from nature we have collected through the years...

 

 

From our lovely Oak tree in the front of our home...

 

 

And pine cones from a park near our house...

 

 

Laney got to use the hot glue gun and glued the acorn caps to the branches...

 

 

She glued the wool balls and I tied red ribbons on our candle holders this year...

 

 

We begin with a story from one of my favorite books, Christmas Roses: Legends for Advent...

 

Light our candle with a prayer...

 

 

And meditate on our blessings...

 

 

The Advent Wreath helps us focus and center on family, reminds us to slow down and come inward again to replenish, to heal, and to rest.

 

I found some beautiful verses that I enjoyed very much from Sandi at The Sun with Loving Light...blog here.

 

Blessings and Light to you all as you begin this Advent journey!

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!

Happy Epiphany!

Christmas Memories ~ A Glimpse...

The Arrival

The Advent Calendar

The Advent Wreath

Father Christmas

Marta and the Polish Star

The family heirloom

The Silver Tree

The Carollers

The Angel Star Ladder

Daddy's special gift

The bird whistles

Mommy's special gift

The awesome waldorf stocking stuffer exchange

The special pink beeswax crayons in pink

The Ostheimer loot

The favorite new toy: Cheery Felted Wool Chipmunks and their Hollow Log Home from Eve's Little Earthlings

Magic Cabin Pocket Fairies and Starshine Fairies

Stonehenge replica for my history major hubby!

Wishing You All Peace, Blessings & Love...

Rembrandt - 1646

Die Anbetung der Hirten

The Adoration of the Shepherds

The Gift of Light

The gift of light I thankfully hold

And pass to my neighbor its shining gold

That everyone may feel its glow,

Receiving and giving may love and grow.

I received this gift of light from Lisa at Celebrating the Rhythm of Life with Children. What a beautiful idea and way to nurture our own spirits this busy holiday season! Thank you so much, Lisa - I was greatly touched...

I pass this gift of light to you Dear Lynn at Raising Little Shoots. Thank you for the light and warmth you bring to the world. I am grateful for your presence in my life.

Pass the gift of light to a cyber neighbor who lights your world until the world is aglow with a circle of light.

This verse can be used with children passing the light around a circle.

Pass the light on and let's see how broad a circle it can make.

Advent Spirals

Joseph was my very first needle felting attempt of a person. His hands are thick and chunky, but I love the simplicity about this pair. On our Advent table, we have Mary on her donkey, being led by Joseph as they make their way around the Advent spiral...and when they land on the final star, they will be placed in the stable where the manger awaits the babe...

This is our scene and I have a cotton cloth underneath my silk. The stars are cut from wool felt and branches from our trees form the spiral. However...we've already had one bump from one of the girls chasing a dog around the house that resulted in the silk sliding and the stars falling all over the place. It was a mess...


So next year, I am going to try this WONDERFUL tutorial from a blog I really enjoy called, "In These Hills". Please check out this Vermont mama's Advent Spiral tutorial found here.

No more stars flying all over the place - they will stay put and look lovely, to boot! :D

Happy St. Nick's Day!

Some treasures from St. Nick!

2nd Week of Advent

This 2nd week of Advent, we add from the plant kingdom. I wanted to share a picture of one of our Advent spirals that we are doing this year. I removed Mary so it could be seen fully. We have our creche (eco twig house) which was hand made by the artists of Syrendell. They also hand dyed the beautiful blue silk.

Week 1 is the minerals so we placed special gems in our special seasonal table spots. Now we added moss, pine cones, and sprigs from one of our trees. I had cut out 24 small stars to light Mary's way along the path and the eve of the 24th, she will be placed on the large star in the creche to await the birth of the Christ child.

Tucked in another nook of our house, we are doing the angel from last year that descends the heavenly stars each day and on the final day, the star candle will be lit in honor of the birth. That post (with much better pictures as my nice camera went missing on me) can be found here, along with a brief tutorial of how we constructed our star ladder and the tissue paper angel.

The girls and I also have our traditional Advent wreath that we made and we light the candles each night. I will post a quick tutorial on that Mon or Tues.

Again, I apologize that I am so late in sharing things. We have had so much going on this year that it is difficult to keep up with the blogging.

Happy 2nd week of Advent to all!

Don't Forget to Leave Your Shoes Out for St. Nick!

Tonight is a special night for the families who follow this European tradition of leaving their shoes out on the night before December 6th to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas.

We celebrated this tradition as a child and I have so many fond memories of this special day leading up to Christmas. It was always a favorite with lots of anticipation and glee and I am so happy to share it now with my children. One of my mom's favorite Saint's Days - to this day, she still reminds me to leave my shoes outside my bedroom door on the eve of December 5th!

Now in my own tradition, in the days leading up to this event, starting on December 1st, we read a story a day written by the talented author and Waldorf teacher, Christine Natale. Her Bishop Nicholas stories are found free here. They are short, so you could even start them today and space them out to read them all before the big day tomorrow :)

We are also enjoying this out of print book by Jakob Streit called, Saint Nicholas. With the help of Cindy from Whole Spirit Press, we were able to track down a few remaining copies, the link of which has been listed on my blog. I'm not sure if they have all sold out, but you may contact them as listed. See the post here.

Last year, I did a post documenting our celebration which can be found here. We'll see what Old St. Nick decides to leave the girls tonight :) And I hope to share shots of our Advent celebrations and winter preparations over the next several days.

Also, get ready for a special giveaway that I will be hosting, so stay tuned! Lots of fun and festivity coming down the pipeline!

Christmas Eve Night...

Softly, softly through the darkness

Snow is falling.

Sharply, sharply in the meadows

Lambs are calling.

Coldly, coldly all around me

Winds are blowing.

Brightly, brightly up above me

Stars are glowing.

~ B.T. Milne