We are deep into our holiday celebrations, enjoying every minute of this time together. We had a lovely bonfire and candle-lit solstice celebration, and exchanged our homemade gifts, all made with such care and love. We will have friends and family over tomorrow so today has been busy with baking and cooking and preparations (and lots of skating for the boys!) 
Wishing you all days of warmth and peace.

around here:

:: enjoying the lovely weather- snow and sun and sparkling sunrises. I had to rush out this morning to catch this light as best I could.

:: celebrating the days. 

:: holiday crafting

:: the books are out,

::watching the birds at the feeder,

:: our advent candle, by Ari

::eggnog!

:: the snow plow left some big snow piles for sliding. The boys slid down this one for and hour and a half this morning. 

And this afternoon the boys declared this "play day" and have set up the whole living room with train tracks and towns and tunnels under the couch. I have tossed out the plans I had and am letting them play out their happy, epic game. Maybe they'll stop to eat at some point. I am enjoying it too- listening to some holiday music and sipping eggnog and getting a blog post written right in the middle of the day- this is homeschooling in December!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Well, we have been settling into this winter season, enjoying cozying up by the fire, and getting started on some yule projects. Ari has rediscovered finger knitting, and has plans to make a very cool Solstice gift for his brother using the rainbow chains he's making. Yesterday I decided to start the rather epic hand sewing project of finally sewing some numbers onto our advent calender (4 digits sewn on, only 37 left to go!) and we sat together on the couch and worked on our projects side-by-side, with the fire crackling beside us. Oh, such loveliness!

I have a pile of holiday projects I am looking forward to getting to, but realizing that the first order of buisness is finding my sewing table- not to mention the floor- in my little sewing nook.I'll keep looking at that sweet bird fabric to inspire me to get cleaning- I do want to get to that one soon!

On the homeschool front, we just finished our vowel block and Ari enjoyed the story and all the painting. We will work with another Language Arts block through the month of December, mostly focusing on Yule/solstice stories and craft/baking projects.

In the afternoons after Ari's quiet time (when Dori is still finishing his,) we've had a practice time to work on simple handwriting sheets and to work with the math skills from the last block. Many of these activities are games that we both enjoy playing together, or working with pattern blocks or cuisinare rods. I think the cuisinare workbook that comes with the Enki math curriculum is terrific, I see Ari building such a intuitive sense of number and addition/subtraction through working with the blocks. He also just really enjoys it.

Plus, they are fun to build with too!

I've been amazed at how suddenly independent my boys have become. They hop into their snowsuits on their own and are eager to spend time outside whether I manage to get out there with them or not. And yesterday afternoon I was on the phone and looked into the living room and found them playing Go Fish, all on their own- they had gotten the cards and card holders from the games cupboard and set themselves up without my help. It is such a gift to watch them grow and change, and to learn to depend on each other, as well as their Mama and Papa for help. And even as I marvel at how big and independent they are, I am also regularly struck by how little they still are, how sweet and vulnerable and open to magic and wonder.  This mama-heart of mine is full to bursting watching my sweet boys grow into themselves.

Today is the first day of advent, and we will decorate an advent candle together this afternoon to light every night at supper as we count down to the coming of the light. Oh, I do love this season so.