First Week of Advent

 We light one candle shining bright
Upon this Holy Advent night
Fill our hearts with loving might
Lead us to Christmas Day's brilliant light!

 - M. T. Schunemann

I love this time of year as our excitement for the Christmas season grows with each candle that we light :) 

This morning the children and I pulled out the box deep in the back of my closet with our advent candle holder and beeswax candles and brought it to the coffee table. We cleared off the miscellaneous school books that were scattered all over it so that we would have lots of space to set it up in its special spot for the holiday season where it will be joined in the coming weeks by our nativity scene and St. Nicholas.

 Rudolph Steiner incorporates the four kingdoms into the four weeks of advent as well and for the first week he shares:

 The first light of Advent is the light of stones,
Light that lives in seashells, in crystals and in bones.

So the kids picked through their stash of favorite stones and shells and I brought out the special hour glass crystals that were gifted to us from a fellow waldorf family earlier this spring and for the bones we thought maybe our dried starfish might qualify since it's just the skeleton of it left *grin*.

Our tradition is that the youngest child gets to light the first candle and then the middle and so on so little M had the honor of holding the match all on his own to light his candle tonight and then we turned out all of the lights and sat under the glow of our star lanterns from Martinmas and watched the light of the candle grow as the wick burned down and the flame grew larger. This went on for a little while until Hubby and I were the last ones left enjoying one anothers quiet company :)

 Over the next couple of days we'll start to pull out all of our favorite Christmas books including  Celebrate with Joy by Sondra Burnett  which is full of inspiration on scriptures to read, craft ideas and ways to make Christmas even more special and our library wish list is overflowing with seasonal favorites. Each trip into town finds us with a few more that are waiting for us to be picked up and brought home. I think I might even grab a few paper whites to plant for next week's light of plants. I can't wait :)

What are your plans for advent and the coming weeks?

Hugs,

Rosina

Project 365 ~ Survivor (Day 9)

This lone dandelion was spotted in our backyard today. A survivor of the frozen cold that surrounds it. Frosty jaws snapped shut as it wonders what happened to the warm sunshine and grass that graced its view just days earlier.

Mother nature can't seem to decide whether she wants rain, snow or arctic cold *grin*. We have gone full circle from rain and flooding to now frozen snow. Half of our yard is behind trees and hedge so it never sees the sunshine and becomes a veritable winterland for much of the time full of icicles and snow.

Giant puddles in the fields left from the flooding have turned into miniature skating rinks and the children are waiting impatiently for the pond to freeze thick enough to skate on. Unfortunately this freeze is only supposed to last a few more days and the cycle of rain, snow & frozen conditions will run its course again and any ice that covered the pond will thin or disappear again.

Sometimes I long for those ultra cold conditions of the prairies where the snow is consistent as is the dry cold, but I love living on the wet west coast and spring will appear much quicker than I can imagine it :)

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. You can see more of my Project 365 photos HERE :)