I caught this (blurry!) picture of Ari just as he was shedding his layers after some good outdoor time. He looked so sweet and woolie and red cheeked I just had to record it.
We've fully switched into winter mode now. The winter books are out and being read and reread. Ari is quite taken with Ollie's Ski Trip and regularly sees Jack Frost hanging about. This morning it was clear Jack had been busy during the night, covering the fences and making the snow in the yard glittery and beautiful.
The nature table has transformed from its oranges and browns to white and blue. It is sparse, but then, so is the season.
There is a bear hiding in her cave on the edge of the table. She's pretty sleepy in her snow-covered den and only comes out to play now and then. With all this wintery-ness is the start of the Christmas excitement. This will be the first year that we have a child who gets what is going on, and we want to be mindful of the traditions we create and the tone that we set. I remember Christmas feeling so magic and special, and I want lots of that for my kids, but not the hype and the consumerism and overdone schmaltz. I've been inspired by some of the great advent ideas I've seen around, and am working on an activity calendar to ritualize the Christmasy things we will do together a little more. It is just a little envelope for each day with an activity written on it: bake cookies, cut paper snowflakes, have a fancy tea party, go for a moonlit walk etc. We are nowhere near organized enough to plan a whole month ahead, since we will include christmas concerts and visits with friends and such, and we don't know yet when these will take place. But then we can just change the contents of the envelopes around to suit our schedule. I think this type of advent count-down will work well for Ari. He likes to know what we will be doing and to have things laid out. And he certainly doesn't need a piece of chocolate every day!
We have also decided to start a handmade tradition with our family- not buying anything, but making something for each member. I know what I am making for all my boys, but I have to think of how to help Ari create gifts for his Papa and baby brother. I think the baby gets exempted from having to make something this year. But next year boy, he'd better shape up.
cuuuuute cheeks!
ReplyDeletei realy love your advent callendar idea, sounds like a lot of fun:) me and my boyfriend are doing the home made christmas gift thing also, look forward to seing what your family thinks and makes up
ReplyDeleteHey, baby is not exempt...you could do a handprint in a frame or something like that from baby. :)
ReplyDeleteI love 'Ollie's Ski Trip'!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if it suits you or not, but I can tell you what I did with Galen this year. I cut out rectangles of felt for each person he was making a gift for (he had a bit more work cut out for him then your little guy will! lol). Then I cut out a selection of little felt shapes in different colors and little snips of ribbons. He glued the little bits of things onto the rectangles to make a bookmark for each person. We had lots of fun doing this project just the two of us. We don't often get a chance at time alone together like that. He had surprisingly set ideas on which things should go on the bookmarks for which person. Next time we get a bit of time with everyone else out of the house, I'm go to help him to wrap them all up in some of his drawings.
You could do the felt shapes thing and then string them from two sticks so that he could create a mobile as a present for his little brother.