this coming seasons' inspiration

I am so inspired by so many of the blogs out there in the blogosphere. Recently, I came across this post and had the "I have to do that" feeling. Although I am not a lover of the holidays (over-consumption, divorced parents, too much travel, and the nauseating push towards ridiculous amounts of consummerism)...in fact, I am largely a nay-saying grinch, but I am really attemping to give my kids a Christmas that they may remember for something a little more than just sadness and the void their sweet daddy left behind. So here I am trying to pull together a Christmas built with anticipation and joy. And I am going to borrow something we did in church as a child (although I am not religious and no longer attend church). We built ourselves an Advent wreath. One of the things I so love about Waldorf education is the bringing together of various seasons, diversity, cultures and traditions. There are so many things to learn from so many cultures and beliefs. So we are going to light one candle every week in the build up to Christmas. Today we made this:
We started with a store bought (cringe) straw wreath to which we used hot glue to adhere four long red ribbons through the centre of the wreath.

I bought four small wood candle holders from the craft store which we painted green and glued to the wreath as well.
I lined up all the ribbons, tied a knot and hung it up! Simple! We are going to do some candle dipping this coming week to make some candles for the wreath (although traditionally three are purple and one is pink).

I love how it turned out! It looks so earthy to me....and Scandinavian.

While Liv and I worked on our masterpiece, Briar played in the bin of birdseed. So fun! An hours worth in fact!