Merry Christmas

The Light of the World has come.

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas.

Valentine Crafts

Today we put our crafty selves to making Valentine gifts and decorations.

First up are some beeswax candles Aidan made for his teachers. We purchased the beeswax sheets from Hinode Farm. He used a cookie cutter to cut out the hearts.

Next, we made stiff yarn decorations by soaking yarn in watered-down glue and outlining words and shapes on a glass cutting board. After they dried, we hung them in the window.

Later in the afternoon, I made a garland using the wet-on-wet technique found here and wrote some of my favorite quotes on the hearts.

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece -John Ruskin

The Holidays - photos

We had a lovely holiday season and I thought I would share some photos:

Our trip to New York City:

Aidan telling the Macys Santa what he wants for Christmas.

being silly

bright lights


Who is that skating at Rockefeller Center?

entering the Empire State Building

We visited The National Christmas Center in Paradise, PA on Christmas eve. It was so much fun I think we will make the visit a tradition.

Christmas at our house:

Cookies for Santa


Santa's thank you note






early morning visitors

Two very happy boys!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!From me and mine, to you and yours.

Waldorf Winter Festival

A few weeks ago, we attended the Susquehanna Waldorf School's Winter Festival, where we met some lovely people, played games, decorated a gingerbread house and did some Christmas shopping.


Nature Table at the entrance


A lovely welcome


The chalk board in the 1st grade room


First Grade Nature Table


Playing marble wacker


The Gingerbread House



Aidan meets the Snow Queen

Our little bit of calm in the holiday rush - the nature table

It seems everywhere I look, people are in a hurry during this holiday season, myself occasionally included. To say the rhythm of our days has been disrupted is an understatement as I work more hours and we are about to plunge deep into gift wrapping and card mailing. I have managed to keep it simple and true in one small, but very special place in our home, our nature table.

I have several things we could have put on it, but as the children and I decorated it, it was obvious that more would be, well, just more. So here we have it; a blue playsilk we dyed this past summer, 2 pinecones from out west, a wood bowl with shiny prized rocks that the 2-year old often places around baby Jesus, a watercolor of the magi bringing baby Jesus gifts, and a terra cotta creche. The creche is for the children to touch, hold and play with, giving us the opportunity to talk about the baby Jesus. Our nature table stands as a simple, quiet reminder of what Christmas is truly all about: The Devine.

Countdown to Christmas

We have begun or countdown to Christmas. Since Aidan was very young, we have celebrated this season of reverence and the anticipation of celebrating Jesus' birth. It is a perfect opportunity for us, including my children, to remember what is truly important in life and that there is a Truth.

We use an Advent calandar like this one from Germany. Each day the boys open a flap and we talk about the picture inside. Then they receive a surprise, which includes gifts (beanbags, stickers, etc), and fun crafts (dying playsilks, making a gingerbread house, decorating the winter nature table, etc.)