4th and 5th activities of Advent: the rhythm of our season

I'm loving the rhythm of our Advent calendar. It's just right for Lucy right now. She remembers every morning, and figures out which tag should come out next.

We read it in pajamas.

The finished tags pile up in a bowl on our dining room table. (Toddler tip: if you don't want something mangled, designate a special place for it to go. Now she wants to put it in the bowl, rather than carry it around with her.)

Sometimes, the activity is as simple as adding a plant to our creche scene, and re-arranging the rocks to make space. (I LOVE the way Lucy arranged the rocks here. The symmetry at the entrance to the stable, the graduated rocks... oh, she's my daughter for sure!)

Most of the time, what the tag says is not a surprise. She likes to know what's coming, and we talk and make plans all the time, so it wouldn't work to try to keep events secret.

It doesn't matter. The ritual of it all makes it special.

(Think Sinterklaas' horse will mind some dried lily leaves in lieu of hay?)

Here we are, preparing for tomorrow's plan: gifts for our neighbors.

It didn't go well. There was a bit of a measuring-ingredients snaffu, which, when combined with a 2-hours-in-the-fridge wait time, meant only 4 cookies were successfully made this evening. Oh, well. We ate them ourselves on special Christmas-y plates and called it a success.

Somehow, the simple act of using this Advent calendar has helped us (grown ups) to slow down and appreciate all the little parts that together prepare us for Christmas, rather than losing the magic of it all in the rush rush rush to get it all done. I hope we can maintain this more-sane pace for the rest of the season!

More great Christmas books for toddlers

I think it's time for the second installment of great Christmas books for toddlers (original list here). Here are some more of this year's favorites:

Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Barbara Cooney.
Ok, it might be exaggerating to call this our favorite, as I haven't given it to Lucy yet (it's going "in" her shoes from Sinterklaas). But it's gorgeous, and I love it, so I'm including it here. Lucy and I were just talking tonight about how Jesus is depicted differently in many different stories by many different people, reflecting their experience. So this version which seems to be set in New England in more modern times makes perfect sense to me. With the same rhythm as Big Red Barn, it's familiar and new all at once; soothing and peaceful.


Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. Do you know Little Mouse from The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear? (If not, and you have a toddler, you might want to run out and get it right now. They'll love it.) He's back here, barricading his huge heap of gifts so the big hungry bear won't get them. But that bear is lonely, and never gets any gifts. Little Mouse's decision is a lovely message about the true spirit of Christmas.

Lucy and Tom's Christmas by Shirley Hughes. Looks like this one's out of print, but if you come across it used (or for that matter, any Lucy and Tom books, or Alfie books, or heck, anything by Shirley Hughes), grab it up. It took me a while before I picked up her books--they looked too-long and not my style. But once I got started reading them with kids, I couldn't stop. They are so perfectly kids' daily experience. My Lucy loves reading about this Lucy and Tom preparing for Christmas, celebrating with their family, and even becoming grumpy from all the excitement (and being helped back to calm by a walk with grandpa).

The Christmas Book by Dick Bruna. While you're looking for out-of-print books, look for this one. Dick Bruna's illustrations are amazing in their simplicity (and are straight out of my childhood), and the story is told simply and at a perfect level for young children. Apparently, there are some versions of this book with a pop-out-and-use nativity scene included; I'd love to get my hands on that one! Meanwhile, I'll read this one again and again and again.

And the one I want to buy next is

Christmas is Here by Lauren Castillo. I've seen it on several blogs, but finally got to hold it in my hands yesterday. It's gorgeous. I love its simplicity, the fact that it uses the text straight from the Bible, and the way she combines a modern family's walk by a nativity scene with the story of the first Christmas. The close-up picture of the modern child peering into the manger at Jesus grabbed me immediately.

(There are more. I may have to do a third list soon!)

3rd activity of Advent: books in Boston

"Saddle up, girls, we're going to Boston..." was the song singing in my head when I woke this morning. We rolled out of bed and headed off as early as we could for a marathon day of 2-hours-driving-each-way, hanging out with friends, shopping for books for every child on our Christmas list (plus some birthdays), and then--why not?--a trip to a big new Savers thrift store (where we bought clothes and a huge pile of books).

We're the "book aunts," or so we dubbed ourselves when our first niece was born 18 years ago and we started buying books for every occasion. We wanted to be the ones who made sure there were always good books for the kids in our lives. And ever since our friend in Boston introduced us to a huge bookstore with an entire roomful of remaindered children's books, we've made a yearly trek there for our Christmas shopping.

(sorting the books at midnight, with the obligatory cat-on-books in the photo).

We had an amazing time with our friends, who make an all-day shopping trip an event to savor!

Speaking of books, I think it's time for the second installment of great Christmas books for toddlers (original list here). But it's the wee hours of tomorrow already, so I'll have to post those later.

2nd activity of Advent: decorate

Day 2 of the Advent calendar. Time to decorate!

The leftovers from our wreath-making: a pile of possibility.

A hold-up...I wanted to decorate the dining-room windows, but I just couldn't bear to look past ornaments and greenery to this mess for one more season:

We painted these windows oh, about 10 years ago. And we STILL haven't managed to scrape off that paint! At some point, we just stopped seeing it, and life crowded out that project. But when Christmas comes around, I notice it, and cringe. So, today was the day. An hour of scraping before nap, and then another hour after bedtime (it gets good and baked on after all those years!), and the window was finally ready to decorate. (Hard to see, but those are the Christmas-card ornaments I made last year.)

With window-scraping and 3-year-old-help and lots of cleaning required before decorating could begin, we didn't do all I'd like to do. But we got a good start.

1st activity of Advent: Christmas cards

We drew the first card from our Advent calendar this morning.

(Let's just get the season's photo apologies out of the way, shall we? They're terrible. It's dark. Some day I'll improve. Meanwhile, I'm sorry for the rotten photos.)

Lucy's art, a 2-inch hole punch, a pen, a glue stick, and a couple of rubber stamps made some pretty cute cards. I stayed up way too late one night last week assembling them all. Now we've just got to manage to write them and send them. I hoped if we started right away on December 1st, they might make it out before Christmas.

Lucy and I wrote a few while we ate lunch today, and then we did a few more after dinner. It's such fun to have her help this year: "write 'us love them'," "write 'I love you'." "You tell me, Mama. What do you think us should write?" With her help, I actually think they might go out on time this year!

Yarn along: easy reading and tricky crochet

We're having a sick day here--all of us with fevers--so I'll keep this brief. But I did want to share a project with the Yarn-Along, as I'm so happy to be crocheting again! The Christmas-gift bug has hit! I'm making (and unmaking, and making again) a Cardiff Cowl. For some reason, I'm finding this pattern a bit tricky to follow, and have ripped out and started again several times. But I'm loving the look, and the yarn is fabulous, so I still have high hopes. If it works, there will be more.

I'm reading something very unusual for me, a suspense novel: Every Secret Thing, by Laura Lippman. Too much going on right now for "serious" reading.

The photo was taken on the picnic table, as it's been unseasonably warm this week and I've been crocheting while the kids play outside!

Long-awaited Advent calendar

I've been wanting to make an Advent calendar for years, and this was the year that I finally did it. Rather than look at all the beautiful options out there and try to create the perfect design and fabric choices for us, I decided to just get it done. I remembered that somewhere I had a red corduroy pillowcase I'd gotten once at a thrift store, and I envisioned maybe linen pockets, or maybe vintage tablecloth bits? While I was fighting my way through the heaps of mess blocking my sewing closet door, I found a linen napkin I'd pulled out for another project last Christmas (yes, it takes us that long to put things away sometimes!). Hmmm... That got the ball rolling, and I began to cut and stitch, taking sizing cues from the already-cut-into pillowcase (what did I use that for?) and from the smaller-than-originally-envisioned tags I bought. As I began to sew, I realized the pockets were going on crooked and un-symmetrically, but I just kept on, telling myself when it was all done, the overall effect would be fine.

And you know what? It is. Done and ready to use is what I really needed--not perfection. (Might be a little more perfect with some paint touch-ups behind it though, huh?)

The tags are simple, too. My goal was to make sure we scheduled in all the things that matter most to us, so that the things that matter less won't crowd them out. The activities are mostly things we'd do anyway, but ritualizing them by putting them on our calendar and treating them as special changes them from to-do-list items to family events.

Here's what we have planned:
1. Let's write Christmas cards today.
2. Today, let's decorate the house for Christmas.
3. We're going to Boston today to buy books for gifts. (We do this every year, to visit good friends and shop at a huge bookstore that sells remainders.)
4. It's the second Sunday of Advent. We'll light 2 candles and add plants to our creche.
5. St. Nicholas comes tonight. We'll set out our wooden shoes.
6. It's St. Nicholas' Day. Let's surprise our neighbors with gifts.
7. Someone is coming to visit us today! (Uncle David, but I left the card open-ended so I could re-use it in future years.)
8. Christmas cards are coming. Let's find a place to put them.
9. Let's look for Christmas decorations today. (This might be a special walk or drive, or it may just be as-we-go-about-our-business, depending how busy life gets. I wanted to cut us some slack now and then.)
10. Today we will cut our Christmas tree.
11. It's the third Sunday of Advent. We'll light three candles and add animals to our creche.
and
Today we'll put up our tree and string it with lights. (I liked the idea of adding the Sundays of Advent to the calendar, but after I'd written up all the cards and tried to figure out how to work everything in, I realized that some projects only really work on weekends, and there are only so many weekend days! So sometimes, I put two cards in a pocket.)
12. Let's choose our gift for Project Heifer today. (We put this in here because this year, we want to include Lucy in the decision.)
13. Let's make chocolate-chip cookies today. (Andi's family's tradition.)
14. Let's wrap our gifts today.
15. Today we'll put ornaments on our tree. (Our tree sits ornament-less for a while, because I have so many young children playing here each day, and lots of fragile or precious-to-me ornaments. We like it just fine with only lights in the meantime.)
16. Time to mail our Christmas packages.
17. Tonight is the Florence Luminary celebration. Let's go.
18. It's the fourth Sunday of Advent. We'll light four candles, and add people to our creche.
and
Today, we'll go to the Messiah sing.
19. Let's write some more Christmas cards today. (We'll have to do a lot more than 2 evenings to get them all done, but I figured these would be the times we'd include Lucy in the project.)
20. Let's sing carols at the piano today. (I hope we'll do this often, but just in case, can't hurt to schedule it in!)
21. Let's wrap presents today.
22. It's the Winter Solstice. Let's celebrate with a fire. (Again, trying to allow for simplicity. Maybe we'll go to some event with a bonfire. Or maybe we'll just have a little one at home.)
23. Let's make vamino bars today. (My family's tradition.)
24. It's Christmas Eve! Let's read our favorite Christmas books. (We'll have read them all a zillion times by then. And we may do something else more exciting that day. But again, we're leaving room for last-minute craziness...)
25. Merry Christmas!

I finished it a couple nights ago, and am having a hard time not hanging it up yet (and by the way, it's just weird that Advent begins in November but Advent calendars begin in December). I still remember the Advent calendar my mom made when we were girls, and I hope this one will be as special to Lucy.