Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!  

We wrapped up our Advent season here with a trip to the local Waldorf school's advent spiral on the Fourth Sunday.  Since the fourth Sunday is the "light of humankind," each child got to carry a lit candle while walking through the spiral and place it somewhere on the path.  Let's just say that two- and four-year-olds are not always especially excited about the quiet and reflective nature of this type of thing.  We did like the lantern path and always love the playground there, which is full of fallen limbs as balance beams, dishes for mud pies, and tree swings.

Entrance to lantern path leading to Advent spiral

We also got to celebrate with O's school at the annual "Winter Celebration," which we missed last year due to pink eye. :(  

BUT, it was even more exciting to go this year and it was so, so lovely.  A sing-a-long and tons of food plus a fun family photo booth, a mini-crystal cave full of gnomes, and a chance to make candles, pomander balls, a bird feeder, and a gnome.  And a lovely marionette show and surprise appearance by King Winter himself.  When he emerged, O ran right up to him and pronounced, "we just heard a story about you and it was BEAUTIFUL."  Cue the awwwwws.  Ridiculous AND adorable.

Sweet decor at the Winter Celebration.  

Celebrity sighting!  And he brought snowflake ornaments for all the children.

Because we weren't traveling or hosting this year, things were decidedly...calmer.  There was no frantic packing of bags or scrubbing of bathrooms or rushing to the airport.  And the weather was crazy warm (thanks el nino?) so we even went for a bike ride and walk on Christmas Eve with no coats.

He has gotten SO GOOD at this bike and is always looking for hills to glide down so he can show off his skills.

Grumpy face, but rare wearing opportunity!

And our Christmas celebration itself was so relaxed and lovely.  I definitely missed having the commotion of family around.  I actually like the chaos and hubbub of so many people sharing space and do sometimes lament our children not always seeing close family on special occasions, but it couldn't be helped this year.  Four plane tickets are just not feasible and with a new job, M didn't have any extra time off.  But, celebrate we did!

We have a lovely parish that we typically attend when I'm not in session for the school year and although it wouldn't be my top choice, M likes and it and CHOOSES to go, so I'll take the minor sacrifice and go with it.  Ever since Christmas Eve, we've been sitting in the same spot in the front row right in front of the creche, which delights O and L to no end.

We were early for Christmas Eve Mass in order to get a seat and so spent no less than 40 minutes listening to O and L lament the empty crib in the barn.
"WHERE IS BABY JESUS?!?"
"Is he coming?  I don't think he's coming."
"WHEN IS THE BABY COMING??"

And so on.

He did, in fact, show up.

And because we have such generous family, our children were gifted with lovely, lovely gifts on Christmas morning: Waldorf playstands (half-price on Etsy!) from my mom and a sweet dollhouse from my dad and stepmom.  My FIL and MIL gave us tons of wonderful books and so rather than have them lost in the shuffle, we decided to start a new tradition of a book for each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  That has been fun since we've been reading our Advent and Christmas books almost exclusively for a month and each book gets its proper due.  I like it!

Happy.

But my favorite gifts to give this year were some of the smallest.  Ever since the Holiday Faire at the local Waldorf school, L has been obsessed with her baby having a "polka dot pillow and a purple hat."  An incredibly talented friend knit the cardigan and beret and I (poorly) sewed the polka dot pillow and blanket.  It has simply been the sweetest to watch her always wrapping her babies and putting them to bed, even if she still uses the playsilks as often as the blanket.  

Such a little mama.

He's starting to look so grown up.

I took a cue from a favorite tradition of mine at my dad's house and used scraps of paper to wrap up everything in their stockings, which were really fun to all dump out and open together.  

We were lucky enough to be invited to a friend's house for Christmas dinner.  Our families are great friends and the kids all adore each other and they go all out for Christmas dinner.  Delicious food, beautiful people, and adorable kids: merry Christmas to all of us!

I think was supposed to be "excited face."

After Christmas Day, we keep right on celebrating through Epiphany.  The tree and decorations all stay up, although I think we might be entering fire hazard territory.  We finish making any gifts (ahem, teachers, family, EVERYONE), bake our cookies and treats, and enjoy the season!

One bonus is that some of the Christmas attractions are less crowded in the days after the 25th, so we spent our New Year's Day at Mass for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and then headed to a bikeway for a "First Hike" of the new year.  Because we are always organized and on-time, we couldn't find the actual group gathering, but no matter.  We hit the bike path for a short walk/ride ourselves that was abbreviated due to the cold.  It was still so nice to start the year off in nature for a brief bit and moving our bodies after so much holiday indulgence.

This week must be a recent record for babywearing with this one.  AFTER I've sold all my wraps...

Checking out the dam.

We also made the yearly trek to La Salette Shrine, admittedly not my favorite attraction, but the kids love it and now it's a tradition, so what can you do?

The story of Cloppers, the Christmas donkey.  You might be familiar with the baby Jesus, one of the supporting characters.

O loved the giant rosary and walked it three separate times, telling me he was "going to pray the rosary" with his tiny hands folded.  <3 i="">

"I want to touch all the purple lights."

It has been such a lovely celebration so far, but I am definitely ready for a bit of routine with everyone back in school tomorrow and myself back in the office, at least for a little bit while I finalize the details for our immersion trip in (eek!) less than two weeks.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!