Saint Nicholas and Saint Lucia

I have been doing less blogging lately to focus on the festivities of the holiday season. The Christmas letter has been written, the decorations are up, some cookies have been baked, and Grant's quilt is being sewn. Now the presents need to be wrapped, and the Christmas cards need to be sent out. It's a busy time of year, as all of you know!

Saint Lucia

This past week we celebrated Saint Lucia. It is a very important festival in Scandinavia, and a good time to focus on serving one another. I read stories about St. Lucia and how the festival is celebrated in Sweden. We also made St. Lucia ornaments for our tree. Johanna wanted hers to be totally covered in glitter, so that's what we did.

Johanna's Lucia:

Grant's Lucia:

Saint Nicholas

The week before last we were celebrating Saint Nicholas. The real one, not Santa Claus. I read stories about St. Nicholas, Grant and I drew a picture of St. Nicholas, and the kids left their shoes out on the eve of St. Nicholas Day so he could leave them gifts. There are many people who use this day for their children to receive their gifts from St. Nick or "Santa" and leave Christmas for giving gifts and celebrating the birth of Jesus. You can read more about Saint Nicholas at this awesome site: http://stnicholascenter.org/.

Mom's Saint Nicholas Drawing:

Grant's Saint Nicholas Drawing:

For Advent, last week was "the light of the plants". We're moving up and away from the stones and crystals that look lovely, but do not grow and change, and into the plant kingdom. I added a mini pine tree and pine cones to the nature tables. Grant and Johanna also made some fun glitter trees.

This week is the "light of the beasts". We will try and focus on the animals and wildlife around us, and reflect on how the animals are settling in for the winter. I will add the animals to the nativity scene, feathers we have collected around the the property, and a blue wool fleece pond (a gift from the sheep) with little felt fish to the nature tables.