December 2

There's been more praying going on at our house. Only this time it's "Ullr, Please Bring MORE Snow!"

Evidently Little Son took the camera outside to capture some of winter's magic.
Last night we had an Advent Spiral Festival at the park with our friends. Mostly the Mama's, but we had a newcomer, her name is Emily. She has just moved here. She seems very, very sweet and I am pretty much 100% certain that we shall have an official new addition to The Mama's very soon!
We took the sled and the saucer with us- after (well, and during, too, if the truth be known) the oh-so-quiet and reverent Advent festival, Trev was sliding down those frozen hills at warp speed - having an unbelievably grand time. He did consent to take his turn at getting his apple-candle lit by the center's angel, but then he was a might impatient on the way out of the spiral and decided to skip over a wall or two! (I saw that one comin' a mile away.)
It was a beautiful event, and I feel so blessed to have these souls around me.

The children are thrilled with the advent calendar, of course. The first day's treasures were a bug in neon slime for Trevelyn (which he promptly took to his room for an experiment as well as to extract its DNA), and a bracelet for Madeleine. Yesterday was
a tiny package of sweet tarts for Trev and a little roll of stickers for Madd. They were quite thrilled.
My friend Julie has set up an Advent of a different sort, and I think it's a beautiful idea, and one I'd like to incorporate, also. Maybe we could tuck a message inside our little boxes in the calendar along with the tiny treasures. I'll have to think on it. Or maybe we could write ideas inside the links of our paper chain. - which we haven't done, yet. Busy, busy!

Today we're combining Art & Craft Circle (the monthly children's one) with mama's crafty Monday, so the children will be be stained-glass painting ornaments and making snowflakes, and the mama's will be making holiday gnomes.
An afternoon of crafting, friends and fun. How lovely!