Getting Closer

The second light of Advent is the light of the plants.
Plants that reach up to the sun, and in breezes dance. 

Our Advent Spiral Calendar continues to be a much loved tradition. 

And new this year, from Dave's parents, is this sweet Advent Calendar. 

It looks perfect on the mantle!

Christmas Morning

After the traditional "picture in their jammies in front of the tree" we started (as always) with their stockings. 

Each year Santa leaves the girls one gift of his choosing.  No letters are written.  No sitting on his lap to give the request. 

Nope, we kick it old school around here!

Last year we began using the poem "something you want, something you need, something you hope for, something to read" as shared with me by my friend Jannine from A Jar Full of Kitty Beans.  It is such a lovely way to keep Christmas beautifully simple.  This year the gifts we chose for the girls came from Magic Cabin and Bella Luna Toys.  Two companies that (along with Nova Natural) are always a part of our family celebrations.  Not only are these fabulous high quality classic toys but we also get to support  some wonderful local small businesses too!

Something to wear

Something to read,

Something you want,

Something you need.

Not that we have any snow yet to use them in. 

It was such a lovely Christmas morning!  Full of laughter, love and joy.  It's always such a special day of reconnecting as a family after being without Dave for the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So happy to have all four of us under the same roof on a weekend morning after many weekend "girls only" mornings.  We hope that each of you had a most wonderful Christmas morning too!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours we wish you a very merry Christmas and a wonderful week celebrating with those who you hold dear.  May love, peace, joy and hope surround you this holiday season and always!



Five Days To Go!

Our Advent Spiral Calendar

Last week I noticed on the Little Acorn Learning Facebook page a post about a lovely Advent Spiral Calendar.  I had been wanting some kind of lovely, unique, wooden Advent calendar for a couple of years now but had not found anything that seemed "just right" until last week.  And while ours needs a little tweaking (stars of different sizes being one major change we'd make) we are pretty impressed with how easy it was to create and how beautiful it turned out!

The next day...

I love that this was a whole family project!  Once it was all assembled (and we had "caught up") we all sat back an admired at how beautiful it turned out.  Such a simple project made even simpler by our local wooden toy maker having pre-cut wooden stars.  I can't wait to see it with all the stars on it on Christmas day (and I will be sure to post a picture of it too)!  Thanks Little Acorn Learning for sharing this beautiful calendar with us! It's simply divine!