delivery

Delivering bread and other little gifts to our landmates. Returning home with rosy cheeks and cookies in our tummies.

Mmm. A lovely holiday so far over here. We are recovering from all the fun we had at our string of holiday events. We were hoping to avoid the overwhelm, and managed to spread the fun over several days which worked great. Only now we are tired and ready to spend some time quietly playing and hanging out together. We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner at our house. The night before the event I sat on the stairs and wondered where on earth we were going to put all the people we'd invited, but we managed just fine. This was the first gathering we'd held at our house since it has grown from a wee cabin, and it felt good to fill up our living room with friends and food and babes.
And Christmas day was lovely- a slow, quiet morning where Ari opened presents and played with each one before moving on to the next. We generally want to keep the toy part of the holidays simple, with only a few meaningful gifts and lots of focus on the traditions and friends and family part, and I'd say this was a success. We exchanged our handmade gifts for each other on solstice (another post!) and just had a few special things in the stockings and under the tree- some furniture for the farmhouse, a tomten and fox wooden figures, a pair of secondhand skates, a couple books. The marble in the top picture is a very big hit, a gift from Ari's grandparents and aunt and uncle. And Dorian got a few small treasures too. We had Christmas dinner with family and friends and did our annual hike despite the cold. I had Dorian in the sling with a borrowed parka zipped over top and managed to stay warm enough. And the abundance of good food helped too.

I have not done a good job of taking photographs of the various projects we have been working on. I will try to gather up the finished crafts and photograph them for the archives (that would be this blog.) The stockings I finished just in time, there have been a few glimpses of them in progress, and here they are in action. This was my first real embroidery project and I enjoyed it. I used Wee Wonderful's free stichette pattern; I have a few more of her patterns sitting in my sewing room awaiting the embroidery needle. I had Perry help me alter them a bit to have each one be a little different and have each little elf holding something that is meaningful for the boys. Ari's is holding a star (the meaning of his middle name,) and Dorian's is holding a candle (his middle name means "peace.") All the other projects will make their way here soon, now that all the surprises are out!

welcome back the light

Happy Solstice to you all!

baby it's cold outside

Okay, this cold is getting old now. Sure it is nice to sit by the woodstove and knit, and heaven knows I have a pile of handmade items in need of finishing. But lordy, this cold! It had been over a week now with temperatures really is too cold to got outside- it is currently minus 30 and windy, a nasty combination. Our solstice sleigh ride we had scheduled for tomorrow is cancelled, as is our annual forest picnic. We are all getting a little snaky from being inside our house so much and our little town really has very few indoor options to be with kids. I'm afraid there is a little more grumpiness than festiveness right now as we try to occupy the active two-year-old indoors day after day. The baby refused to nap today too, making it hard to get much done.

Alright. There. I'm done my whining. Now let us focus on something small and sweet and delicious, shall we?

There. That's better.

for the birds

We made pine cone bird feeders the other day. A fun messy project, though Ari was not too keen on getting his hands covered in peanut butter which surprised me. I can think of many wonderful traits he possesses, but cleanliness wouldn't be the first to come to mind. And heavens knows he doesn't pass up an opportunity to get his hands right into his supper.

Oh well, once the really sticky part of the job was over, he enjoyed covering the cones with birdseed and running the seeds through his hands- which is its own sort of tactile experience. As is throwing the bird seed into the air and walking over the scattered mess "like outside in the grass." Like I said- he's not exactly the tidiest fellow. But he is a generous sweet hearted nature- lover who is excited to feed the birds, and will enjoy hanging these up and seeing who comes to snack upon them.

made it

We made it through our first day alone just fine. We read books and baked and played with yarn and tried to keep the house warm with the outrageous cold outside our doors. I put a few too many logs on the fire when I saw the temperature - minus 25! - hence the shirtless boy above. We stayed cozy inside, and did not brave the cold. It is supposed to be this way for the next week at least, so I might not be feeling so positive about things after 5 days cooped up.
We will have to keep up the active indoor play - jumping on the bed, wheelbarrow walks, spinning and flips and swinging in the hammock. And lots of dancing.

And stay busy with christmas crafting and kitchen projects. My little helper and I baked bread from my new bread cookbook today while the baby napped. There will be more of this in our future.

how lovely are thy branches

The tree is up and I am loving how festive it is feeling around here. Did I mention I am having such fun having a child old enough to understand the celebrations? I might have mentioned that. But it is pretty exciting to start implementing some of the traditions and ideas we've been talking and thinking about for years. My heart was never in the celebrations when we were trying to create it before kids. But now it is such good fun.

Ari was pretty excited with the decorating- the treasures in the Christmas box (rather sparse really, but it'll grow,) and the fun of putting it up. Not to mention the hot chocolate to be drunk beside the tree as we adults fiddled with the lights and the tree stand. We really don't have much in the way of decorations, but we will keep building up our collections with handmade treasures over the years. This year's addition was reusable tin tinsel, which I am rather in love with. I hope to make some garlands with Ari this week- cranberries and popcorn perhaps.

And yes, this week is the big one- where I am alone all by myself with both babes for the first time. All day long. Oi. Wish me luck.

tree blessings

We went out the other day to hunt for our Christmas tree and found a beauty. We have been getting our Christmas trees off our land for the past few years. We feel pretty blessed with our abundance of the lovely green friends, but feel some guilt chopping them down. We ease it by only choosing trees that need to be cut, either to clear a path, or to thin out a section. Ari is sitting in front of our tree here, it is clumped together with a bunch of other small trees, so cutting it was giving the other trees a chance. Or so we tell ourselves.

We brought a little picnic into the woods and ate it at the base of the tree before we cut it. Something about the smell of spiced tea outside on a winter day is pretty lovely and food always tastes best after a good walk through the woods.

We thanked the tree before cutting it- feeling grateful for the living thing we were taking from the woods into our home. Ari called out "thank you tree for coming to our house." I'm sure it understood. We plan to decorate it today, now that the ice and snow have melted from the branches. So off we go to drag out the Christmas boxes and crank the holiday music. Fa lalalala.

full moon walk

Today the advent gnome told us we would be going for a moonlit walk after supper. Ari was thrilled, and we donned our snow gear, bundled the baby into the sling and headed out into the windy night. It is magic out there, the moon so big and bright, the snow lit up, the wind kicking up the powder into moonlit clouds. If it wasn't for the cold wind and the approaching bedtime we would have stayed out longer, but instead we trouped inside for PJ's and bedtime stories. Now both boys are asleep and the fire is crackling and Perry and I are bustling away on Christmas projects.

My parents had Ari for a few hours today and I got some time to coo at Dorian and take yet more photographs of him. He is wearing a pair of wool pants I made him from the sleeves of a wool sweater, they work well as a diaper cover and are pretty cute too. I'd like to make up more of these from the ever growing pile of thrifted sweaters in my studio. And did I mention I am madly in love with this baby? Because I am. He just melts my heart with his sweetness.

He laughed for the first time today. When I scooped him up out of the swing (which he likes an awful lot,) to get him dressed for our walk he just started chuckling. I'm not sure what was so funny, but I'll take any baby giggle I can get.

stickers for advent

A little festive decorating.