Twelfth Night

We've generally done most of our celebrating of the three kings on Epiphany and not on twelfth night.  But this year, for a few reasons we moved a large part of our celebration to the fifth.  I enjoyed spending this last day of Christmas setting a festive table and thinking toward an evening celebration.  I found myself sewing a gold cloth for the table.  Then I was making stars on sticks to place in the wood pieces Jim cut and I drilled for the 'trees' for our advent garden; it was delightful to find another use for them. 

Friends came over after dinner and the fun began with kingly children following the star around the house  (Jim is always the star - he just carried the one from our tree this year.)  They marched while holding our magi and singing "We Three Kings."  The star stopped over our party table where baby Jesus awaited the magi.  Christmas Crackers, Kings Cake and Lamb's Wool were the simple elements of the celebration.

Rowan and Isaac helped to make this star garland.  We used wax paper and ironed crayon shavings between the layers.  I then cut stars and hot glued them to twine.

The Christmas crackers were a last minute addition and we so loved that we all ended up with crowns!  I'll be on the look out for more next year!

I made the King's cake from Let Us Keep The Feast: Living the Church Year at Home (Complete Collection)
this year.  It was different than one's I've made before and equally yummy.  I have no idea which we'll do next year.

The boys ended the evening by filling their shoes with grass for the camels.  They are so very eager to see what the wise men will leave! 

 On Epiphany itself we plan on getting take out (from the east) for dinner and chalking our door.  There is a service at church we are hoping to attend at seven, which is late for our boys, but I'm hopeful we can somehow make it work.

Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home (Advent and Christmas)

"While Advent is a season of preparation, Christmas is a season of wonder.  Celebrants have been preparing a long time for this moment; Christmas is an extended time to savor the gift" (23).

A friend contacted me to ask if I would like a review copy of a book on the church year at home... I of course, contacted the Doulos Resources and said "Yes, Please!"  I always love new ideas and resources, and I was happily surprised by the brevity and organization of Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home (Advent and Christmas).

I often have people ask me where to start in celebrating the church year or ask questions like "What are the twelve days of Christmas?" and often they really want to know; they are intrigued by the idea that families can live the church year in such tangible ways.  I have lots of resources I love, but they are all so full of extra ideas and other holidays through the year, that there was no one simple place to point them. That is where this little book is brilliant.  It is not the most exhaustive list of ideas and resources, but it is simple, unintimidating and a wonderful little handbook for celebrating Advent and Christmas.  It does a brilliant job of listing the feast days and most common traditions.  I'm so glad I requested the hard copy (they have a digital copy available here) as I've referred to it many times this season as it sits on my counter.  I've even read bits out loud to my boys as I explain a feast day or tradition.  

Jessica Snell, the editor begins the book with a lovely reflection on discovering the church year as something that helps us fill our longing to know God, teach our children, and live out scripture.  It is worth getting this little book just to read her reflection.  I have so many thoughts on why living the church year is a wonderful way to live as a family, so it was lovely to see similar thoughts so well-said on paper.

After the introduction there are two sections - one on Advent and another on Christmas.  Each of these two sections has the same structure.  They begin "with an introduction which explains the meaning and history of the season".  This is followed with an explanation of the days in the given season.  Next there is a section on traditions (lots of practical ideas of things to do as a family) including ideas 'for the very young' which is lovely for those of us with wee ones. Then there are sections called "In the Kitchen","Beyond the Home" and a resource section.  The resource section lists scriptures, passages to memorize, prayers and seasonal reading.  I must say that the seasonal reading sections are a bit disappointing.  I recognize that they are trying to make the list short and only the best, but only three books are listed for children to read and three for all ages in the Christmas season, which seems a bit of a travesty as there are so many amazing books to share through the season.  The books they recommend are quite good, but there are many others equally wonderful (if not better).

This book is a wonderful resource for those who want to begin celebrating advent and the twelve days of Chistmas.  It is also a lovey book for those who already celebrate these seasons, but would like an organized handbook to refer to throughout the season.

Feast of the Holy Name

Today we celebrated the feast of the Holy Name as part of our twelve days celebration.  Traditionally the Feast of the Holy Name is most often celebrated on the first of January, but there are traditions that celebrate it on several different days in January.  We chose to celebrate on the third because we are home, but I think we'll  continue this tradition as the first, being new years day, has family traditions of its own.

The idea behind the feast is to celebrate that eight days after his birth, per Jewish custom, Jesus would have been taken to the temple to be circumcised and named.  

Here are a few ways we celebrated today...

::At breakfast we shared stolen, which is a traditional German bread made to resemble the Christ child swaddled (I bought this right before Christmas at Trader Joe's).  I shared the meaning of the feast day and we talked about Jesus being taken to the temple (which involved explaining circumcision to a curious four year old - smile.) 

 :: This was actually Jonah's Christmas craft at his school party this year.  It is a chain with twenty five different names of Jesus on it.  I believe it was intended to be copied on purple and be an advent activity, but his teacher printed it on gold and silver to make a lovey Christmas decoration.  (I just did a quick online search and you can find a free printable here!) We talked about the names some more today and Jonah has enjoyed looking up verses in his Bible over the Christmas holiday.

 :: The boys enjoyed water coloring over white letters I had drawn to discover the name of Jesus and IHS.  I sewed the J-E-S-U-S on a ribbon to make a simple banner to decorate for the day.

:: And then tonight we had a simple feast of soup and bread, followed by honey cake with lemon icing (from this cookbook - it got mixed reviews in my family - I was going for something not too sweet.)  We put a candle on it as Rowan has been asking when we will have Jesus' birthday cake (we've never done a birthday cake before, but he won't except that anyone, especially Jesus, could have a birthday without a cake!)  The cake has the letters IHS - or Iota-Eta-Sigma - on it, which is a shortened form of the Greek name Jesus, which means the Lord Saves. We talked about this and that the Hebrew of Jesus would be Joshua.  IHS is the Holy Name traditionally associated with the Feast of the Holy Name.

:: As the boys ate their cake and drank hot cider I read Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story
by Sally Lloyd Jones (author of The Jesus Storybook Bible).  When I first saw this book I loved the way it showed all of creation getting ready for the birth of the Christ Child.   When I took this book to share with Jonah's class at their Christmas party and they were making their names of Jesus chain, I realized that in the later half of the book Jones slips in quite a few names of Jesus.  Jonah's class at the party and my boys tonight loved shouting out "there's one" when I read another name of Jesus.  It is a perfect book to read with little ones on the Feast of the Holy Name.

A Stocking for Rowan

We are in Pennsylvania for a short time to enjoy the holidays and some wonderful cold weather and beautiful snow!  Sledding, hot chocolate, reading and game playing have all been happening in large doses.  It has been wonderful to be with family these past few months and we have a couple more months of it ahead (though we are headed back south at the end of this week).   And, while I struggle with waves of homesickness for our own home, overall we remain grateful for how well it has worked to be with our parents during this time of transition.

When we returned north last week, I was grateful to find Mom's sewing machine and threw together a stocking for Rowan.  I made one for Jonah's first Christmas (you can see it in this post from long-ago).  When we moved to Scotland we shipped a few boxes of things, but I didn't think to include Christmas stockings and a nativity, which I regretted.  I made four felt stockings to use in Scotland, but always knew that I wanted to make each of the boys their own stocking eventually.  Jonah's remains in storage in Seattle until we settle, so he borrowed a stocking from Grandma this year, who has several extras floating around.  

I pictured making them all similar to Jonah's using solid colored wool and christmas patchwork, but decided this year that their stocking can be as different as my little ones are, plus I really don't like making more than one of anything - planning is the fun part!  I had such a good time raiding Mom's stash of fabric and found ticking, trim and green flannel to go with a wee bit of Mona Luna toadstool fabric that I left here after my birthday.  It is lined with off-white flannel and the toe looks better since being ironed.  I am still contemplating adding a little Rowan tree somewhere on the stocking, but here it is ready-or-not.   

The End of the Twelve Days

I really do love celebrating the twelve days of Christmas.  It isn't feasting every day and making every moment of every day feel like Christmas.  There is lots of real work on these days and lots of what feels like ordinary time.  But, there are moments of every day that we set aside to bask in the newness of Christ's birth.  Sometimes the moments are planned and sometimes they just happen and sometimes the moments that are planned don't happen.  But, in the end it feels like we've really been welcoming a new baby, a new joy.  Yes, it was a lot of work to fix turkey dinner for our Epiphany feast with three kids underfoot and I wish Jim could have taken more time off, but it was good enough.  

When each of my babes has arrived I've hoped for serene time where Jim and I can just bond and soak in the newness of this little person we are welcoming into the world.  But, never are all the moments serene, there is too much work and too little sleep for that.  And welcoming Isaac this time around, I counted on this reality, and it wasn't as hard.  I've just felt grateful for the moments when we all delight in his newness and often at the same time, delighted in the gift of all three of these little men.

And learning that lesson this time around in my own motherhood, has given me a whole lot of peace these last twelve days.  No, we didn't think about Christ's birth every moment, but there were moments when we did ponder Christ's arrival.  We found moments to celebrate the gift of the baby born in Bethlehem and it was good!

-------

I think that one of the highlights of the twelve days this year was the book The Thirteen days of Christmas.  I'd recommend it highly, just as a fun story for Christmas time, and especially for anyone who wants to celebrate the twelve days.  I'm not sure how many of the traditions were local or even made up, but it helped me see how all the days hold together and how many of the days have a particular focus (i.e. Holy Innocents Day, St. Stephen's Day, Adam's Day, Eve's Day...)

So, I can't find much about Adam and Eve's Days online, so perhaps they were local or made up, but I liked the idea.  We ate apples on Adam's day, the boys got special treats (these first two were traditions from the book) and we read the story of the fall from Genesis after dinner.

Our apple dip is a favorite snack around here - some cream cheese, a wee bit of honey and a dash of vanilla.

Twelfth Night we left our shoes out with grass for the camels and the Wisemen filled them with a sweet each, and a book for the boys.  Well, that was the plan, and then a few days before Epiphany Jonah said "I hope the wise men bring me one of those video games that you can hold." (I have no idea where he even saw one of those!)  Anyway, for multiple reasons I have no intention of buying him a video game system of any type, but I did break down and buy the boys one pound calculators.  I couldn't bear the thought of Jonah being disappointed, and he was thrilled!  We gave him math problems all day and Rowan thinks his is a phone, which was fun in another way.

And now, I'm looking toward plow monday.  The treats are being disposed of (mostly eaten), the decorations are being put away, and I'm making lists to help us get into a new routine.  I'm feeling a need for a more structured rhythm now that I'm trying to keep house and care for three little boys.

Happy Epiphany to you All!!!

These Twelve Days

Celebrating the twelve days of Christmas has revolutionized the holiday for me these past two years.  I suppose one could use the twelve days to try to squeeze in more presents and more meals making it even more stressful.  But, I've felt the freedom to spread out traditions, meaning that I don't feel like everything has to be done by Dec. 25th and if it doesn't get done by Epiphany, then it probably wasn't that important.  It also feels so much more appropriate to be working through advent to ready ourselves, not for a single day, but for an event that spills over into 12 days.  

A friend ask recently if we buy presents for all twelve days and while there are a few family gifts of used books or games and maybe a craft supply or two, mostly we just work at marking the time.  A trip to the aquarium (we have a membership), a Christmas story book to share, a christmas movie with popcorn, juice in the fridge, lots of Christmas songs and books, a trip to our favorite hot cocoa spot, treats to make together to share with others...  We are slowing down, drawing together and rejoicing in the newness that Christmas brings.  Last year we did giving quests and I loved it, but this year, while the 12 stockings are hung, our daily mission (which isn't always about giving, unless you count spending time together as a gift to each other, which it is... but not in the same way the original idea intended) hasn't actually made it into the stocking yet and its been just fine.  Daddy is working, which means that mama is busy working too, but we are still finding time to slow down and mark the time.  There is something fun each day and we're rejoicing that Christ's light has come. 

This years 12 Days looks a little like this::

:: We've been really enjoying The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton.  I happened on it by chance when looking for another book illustrated by Shirley Hughes.  There is a chapter for each of the twelve days (and st. Nick day, Christmas Eve, and Epiphany.)  We are also loving Emily's Runaway Imagination, The Blue Fairy Book, and The Green Fairy Book (because we need more than one chapter to read aloud on these cold dark days)

:: I'm loving every christmas tree light and candle I see.  I love the thought of Christ as Light on these dark days.

::Solstice pjs for the boys became 4th day of Christmas pjs (stacked in photo below).  They are flannel lined and oh so warm - they may just need another pair or two.

:: We're all enjoying our new Christmas books.  I'm loving the godly play book 8 on the saints and have some projects in mind!  Jonah is reading like crazy and only half way through his books - hooray for a huge stack of new reading material!

:: I'm planning home ed for the winter (to start next week).  Mostly I've been going through History of the World book two  and picking the literature we will read to supplement (and bemoaning the lack of books in our library system.)  I get so excited about new books to share.  

:: The boys are designing a winter village with new "Christmas Blocks" that appeared on the third day of Christmas.

:: I'm loving some longer naps from the wee one and can't wait until we have a bit more of a schedule.  I forgot how wearing it is to be on call 24 hours a day with very little predictability.  And, my goodness my baby boys are hungry ones!

:: We're letting Jonah have extra computer time over the holidays so that he can look up dinos on wikipedia and he is thrilled.  Such a little nerd, and I love it!

:: We're all enjoying BBC's Frozen Planet.

:: Mum and Daddy are loving Lindt and Gardners Chocolate and two new seasons of Star Trek!!

:: New games and toys make the days seem a little shorter for all of us.

... so far these are good days!

It is December

December means making to me... making garlands, cookies, presents, cards, traditions, tree decorations, fudge, and wrappings.  This year, my making is taking a backseat to caring for a newborn and two little boys while daddy tries to finish his thesis up (oh, we are so so close!)

Friday night I found a large package in our shed that had been left during the day.  Grandma had sent a box of craft supplies.  Wooden beads, postboard letters, wooden ornaments, paint, shell beads, twine, two sided scrapbook paper were all waiting to be made into something!  So Monday morning Rowan and I redd up the school room table, covered it with white paper and I set out all the new craft supplies, some that Jim's parents brought last month, the salt-dough ornaments the boys made Sunday and a few basics.  

We've spent the past two days at the table.  Jonah is beading up a storm, Rowan is painting and painting and painting, and I've been stringing popcorn for our tree.  It isn't the crafting I normally find myself doing in December, but it is delightful to be joining in with my two older boys and making together!

A Holiday Recap

It was a very mellow Christmas season and at moments I found myself wishing for home and the excitement of the five grandchildren under five on my side.  Jim and I have decided that we don't want to be traveling every Christmas as we want to build traditions for our own little family based on the church year.  This year was the first year that I felt like we really succeeded in fully holding the space of Advent, the 12 days and Epiphany.  It definitely is a process adding in these traditions.  I was particularly pleased with Advent this year; once I gave up most of the slew of the gifts I had planned to make I was able to really focus on creating the advent space meaningfully.

As for the twelve days of Christmas and Epiphany here are some things I was thankful for...

:Cinnamon Rolls shaped as a Christmas tree are my family's Christmas morning tradition, but this year I opted out of that tradition and made a very simple breakfast cake (the Blueberry Buttermilk cake from Apples for Jam - Yum!)  I've made rolls the past few years, but it has always been late on Christmas Eve and it has felt rushed and I haven't enjoyed it.  So this year I decided that this is one of the joys of celebrating all 12 days - we had Cinnamon Rolls a couple times, just not on Christmas morning.  I also opted to make turkey dinner for Epiphany so I wasn't roasting a Turkey on Christmas day.

 : Our 12 days of giving quests went well.  The best days were the simplest and most tangible.  At four, giving tinned food to a box in the store isn't overly meaningful.  But, mixing icing for cinnamon rolls and making coffee to surprise daddy was incredibly exciting.   We also particularly enjoyed sharing food with the birds.

: December's 'One Small Change' - We had a paperless Christmas for the first time.  Some things came from family wrapped, but I made bags for our gifts (just sewed on three sides, pinked the top edge and used loose ribbon to tie around the bag - very simple).  The boys loved opening the bags and maybe some year I'll hem the edges and I would love to collect red, black and white folksy fabrics to make more from.

 :Games, Games and more Games - fortunately for us Jonah loves games as much as we do and we played lots of them through the holidays.  Jonah is particularly into chess right now (not Mum's favorite game, but oh well) and spent hours going through his new chess book setting up scenarios and doing chess puzzles.

:Some holiday crafting: I made Jonah a felt beaver for all the Narnia play he's been doing with his tree house.  He is requesting a Mrs. Beaver now... we'll see when I get to that.  

Jonah learned how to knit with a knitting fork - you can see his knitted necklace peaking out from beneath his shirt in the picture below.

:Epiphany - We had a lovely Epiphany to end our holidaying.  Making crowns is always a highlight for us and this year Jonah made the star for us to follow as well.  We have a tradition of following a star on a string through the house singing 'We Three Kings' and then sharing the story of the Magi.

The Giving Quests

Many of you, my dear friends and readers, may have read this article I wrote earlier this fall on our 12 days of Giving Quests and I wanted to give an update on how the quests are going so far.  I've already changed a couple of the quests, we missed one day because we had both a party and a play-date and I keep swapping around what we are doing each day.  We are keeping it very simple.  There is part of me that wants to do quests that somehow give the boys a global perspective and a heart for the developing world; but then I remind myself of their ages and remember that right now the important thing is teaching them to give even in especially in small everyday ways.  And, I also remind myself that the most important task of these twelve days is to mark the time that we wonder at the mystery of Christmas.  

A few of you emailed or commented that you might take on some quests of your own.  Please feel free to share what you are doing in the comments (if you aren't to busy questing.)

Above: Rowan and Jonah work on Thank You cards for their day one quest (and Jo enjoys a candy cane!)

Christmas is Coming

Advent is such a rich time - so many thoughts, projects and so much celebration that there is more that I wanted to share in this space than I have had time to write on.  So I will leave you with a few moments and things around the house right now that I am grateful for in this season.

:We had a lovely solstice celebration with new pjs for the boys and a picnic in the living room followed by darkening of the candles and lights and then the sun candle bringing back the light.

  :The mama, daddy and even a few 4-year-old projects have been popping up here and there around the house.

:We are LOVING The Light in the Lantern: Stories for Advent by Georg Dreissig and have been building a path to Bethlehem on the mantle, representing the miracles on the journey each night.  It is a magical book and hopefully I'll be able to share more next Advent.

:And for now, there are cookies to be baked, gift bags to be sewn (and gifts to put in them), presents to be made or assembled, cleaning to be accomplished, menu planning and shopping to be done, a camera battery charger to find (!!!!), stockings to be hung and well, you get the picture...

I'll be taking a break from this space until Epiphany, though I may throw up a few pictures sporadically as I'm sure there will be lots of photos taken and the grandparents will want to see Christmas photos.

Thanks for joining us here during the year and I wish you the happiest Christmas season!