An Advent in Books

Can you believe that the Advent season is just around the corner?! I know, me either!

I love this season for the magic, the lights, the coziness of snuggling in with blankets and hot cocoa and the family traditions built around the holidays.

I am not such a fan of the consumerism, the rush to get things done, the pressure to create a perfect holiday or the endless to-do lists. So much not a fan.

For the past few years we have started a few simple traditions for our family, but one of my favorite is our Advent Books.

During the Advent period I fill our reading nook bookshelf up with our holiday books, many of which we have had for several years, and read one aloud at bed time. I don't do this every night, and it is not all brand new books, but cozy-ing up on the sofa to read, makes for a sweet and simple tradition. Sometimes we read by candle light with cocoa and (vegan! - these are amazing!) marshmallows, and sometimes we don't!

It's lovely! It doesn't add undue stress to our days (nothing kills a moment than having a frazzled mama!), it's not a budget breaker (I think I added four new-to-us books to our holiday stash this year for a grand total of $10, and even have a few library books that I'm adding to our shelves and returning after they've been read) and it's centered around one of our very favorite things to do - reading aloud!

Perfect!

Here are some of the books that will be included in our Advent collection this year:

Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story, by Cynthia Rylant

The Christmas Day Kitten, by James Herriot

Morris' Disappearing Bag, by Rosemary Wells

Winter Story (Brambly Hedge), by Jill Barklem

The Twelve Days of Christmas, illustrated by Jan Brett

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice, by Wendy Pfeffer

The Story of the Snow Children, by Sybille von Olfers (This one is a particular favorite; the story is delightful and the illustrations are magical!)

The Cowboy's Christmas, by Joan Walsh Anglund

The Legend of Old Befana, by Tomie dePaola

Winter, by Gerda Muller (Another absolute favorite, this is one of four part seasonal series. The illustrations are lush and detailed; my children talk about these books all year long).

First Snow, by Kim Lewis

The Night before Christmas, illustrated by Jan Brett

The Tomten, and The Tomten and the Fox, by Astrid Lindgren

Dream Snow, by Eric Carle

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

Silent Night, by Juliet Groom

Santa Mouse, by Michael Brown

Bear's First Christmas, by Robert Kinerk

The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs

What are your favorite Advent read aloud books for your family?

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A Tale of Advent Woe

So, one of the things that I really wanted to accomplish with this blog, is to give a little glimpse into our home and family, and show that it isn't all rainbows and roses.

Yes! - we have lovely, inspiring times, where everything flows beautifully, and all is perfect, but truly, those times are rare.

There are other blogs out there, that portray that perfect life, with a lovely home, that is always spick and span, where the children are engaged in beautiful crafts, and eating fabulous homemade meals. Those blogs are lovely, and I enjoy a number of them. But that isn't us.

See, as much as I like to read those blogs, I often find myself playing the 'why can't I' game after reading them.

Why can't I keep my home looking like that?

Why aren't my Little Ones perfectly behaved like theirs?

Why don't my handwork project looks as beautiful as that?

And here's the thing. I'm going to guess that the stories and the photos in those blogs only show the slice of clean house that they want you to see. That not all the crafts are lovely, that not all the meals are nutritious and lovingly prepared. I have to remind myself of this, as I take a peak into these blogger's 'perfect' lives.

And, so on to my tale of Advent!

I had this idea of celebrating the four weeks of Advent, and what a lovely thing it could be. We are already doing a Candlelight Night each Sunday, so this seemed perfect. That we would recognize Advent, talk about the season, and get out the birthday ring with some special Advent decorations, adding a couple each week. It sounded perfect in my head.

Last Sunday was the first day of Advent, and it didn't go quite as planned.

The Little Ones were hungry and cranky, so all three were weepy and short-tempered. Dinner wasn't the lovely meal I had planned, but fast food, which wasn't all that good. The table hadn't been cleared, so we still had leftover crumbs from lunch and the day's projects all over it. I couldn't find the Birthday Ring, or the special ornaments, until halfway through the meal. And then I remembered that I didn't have any of the special beeswax candles for the ring anyway; I had forgotten to buy them. So I found a half burned candle, and used that but it looked a little wonky.

This is where I could have become really discouraged. But instead, I just sat down and laughed. I should have known really, that with all the busyness in our lives that the notion of this lovely candlelit evening talking about the significance of Advent was over-reaching.

But it's okay! Really! Life is messy, and chaotic, and even more so with Little Ones.

And of course, the joy of Advent? We get three more weeks to get it 'right'! I'll keep you posted :-)


Have you been doing anything special to celebrate Advent in your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday ... And An Advent Blessing

 

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. ,

Here's the funny thing about Food Waste Friday ... when you know that its coming, you try really hard not waste anything. So I have a zero waste week.

Nothing!

Which is good for my fridge and pocketbook, but doesn't make a particularly exciting blog post.

So, rather than leave you with that, here's a picture of our Blessing Board! Every couple of weeks, I change out the blessing on our chalkboard, and we recite it before our evening meal. A nice little ritual :-)

More on Advent another day (ours so far has been ... interesting, and unexpected!)

How was your food waste this week? Feel free to share here, or at Simply Being Mom (where Food Waste Friday is being hosted this week!); I'd love to hear from you!