Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The holidays are approaching........It is always a mixed time for me......We spend most of December in Greece visiting my family, hard to ccomplain but......... I find it hard being away from home during this celebration filled month. We usually leave about a week after Thanksgiving and return right before New Years. So, Advent, Solstice, Yule, Christmas celebrations are all
rather scattered, less family ritual and rhythm than I would want. My family is traditionless! They "celebrate" Christmas in a hallmark +stress way. I celebrate Solstice, I have not found a "tribe" in Greece yet with similar values. It has always been important to me to create memories for Zoe around holidays. Someone very special to oth of us knitted us a nativity creche.....I am soo excited about this. I have been collecting holiday ornaments one a year for many years now but have never had a holiday tree! and to add insult to injury I live on a Christmas Tree farm!! So this year I am working through all this..........and trying to plan ahead. I am also working with the my "notes" from last years trip do not pack toys and books for zoe and bring way fewer clothes than she needs!! this is because Zoe is the only grandchild and she is pampered and catered to while we are there. My "less is more" philosophy is not understood!! This year I am going to try to bear with it instead of fight it, it is 3 weeks a year!

Like I said in the last post our Nature Table is transitioning out of Fall and into Winter.....Our book basket too. Here are some of the books that are making their way off the shelf and into the basket"

The Story of Thanksgiving (Board book) by Nancy J. Skarmeas, Stacy Venturi-Picket

Pilgrims Of Plymouth by Susan E. Goodman

Baby's Chritmas TReasury by Kay Chorao I found this one at our book swap at the dump!

The Little Penguinby A. J. Wood, Stephanie Boey

Room for a Little One:A Christamas Tale by Martin Wadell

The Advent Story Book by Antonie Schneider and Maja Dus This one we’ll take with us……A story for every night in December, leading up to the excitement of the holidays. I will also bring our advent calender with us. We have a beautiful one I picked up when our local Waldorf Toy Store was changing owners this past summer- a beautiful winters forest scene.

When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan

The Mitten by Jan Brett I LOVE JAN BRETT, most her books are hits around here!

Little Robin Red Vest by Jan Fearnley This one is adorable, a perfect Winter Holiday book.

*Winter Lulluby by Barbara Seuling

Animals in Winter (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) by Henrietta Bancroft, Helen K. Davie

Winter Story (brambly hedge)Jill Barklem (This one is also going to come with us, I think I'll put it in her stocking)

The First Snow by David Christiana

White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin

The Snow Child by Freya Littledale, Barbara Lavallee
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs We also have this on DVD and though we are not a TV family I do look forward to the first snowfall and snuggling on the couch with wool blankets and mexican hot chocolate and watching this again. When I was a child we had this movie on a sine (sp?) camera and we'd watch in on my parents wall.....we begged to watch it, and my dad slowly and purposefully set up all the equipment- a few years later we got a VCR player! I missed the sound of the reel re-winding! and the blurry picture and static sound still this little silent movie has a place in my heart.

I am going to start telling Zoe the story "the Elves and the Shoemaker" before bed.

I have a few more books that I left on the shelf this year some Solstice books that were not quite age appropriate....

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer

Winter Solstice, The by Ellen Jackson

Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven (Illustrator) (we have recently been loving the Paper Princess.)

Does anyone have recommendations for good books on Kwanza and Hanukkah?

We are also going to take our Advent Candle ring with us(we celebrate advent as the waiting period until the light returns) as well as a recipe from for a Sun Cake to bake on Solstice. As well as some holiday music and poems.

While I am list making here's some of my favorite holiday music:

Holiday Songs and Lullabies by Colvin, Shawn

Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan

Wonderland - A Winter's Solstice Celebration

That's all for tonight! Next time I'll plan the Holiday gits and Crafting.....Lot's of homemade (made my myself and others too) make the holidays really special!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention how excited I was to find out tha I "won" a special birthday giveaway from Echoes of a Dream Welcome any new readers from Simmy's blog! I look foward to checking out some new blogs...so inspiring! I was so excited to win something that I think when I am in Greece I'll put together a special goodie package and mail it to a reader on Solstice!

1 comment:

Sean Carter said...

Wow !! Gr8!! So you a have a lot of stuff planned for your Holidays..I'm completely on a shopping spree, trying to make the most during the weekends, also planning to make a lot of hand made cards too...you can jus peep into my Holiday Blog if you are looking out for some cool and innovative ideas!!