Winter Solstice

Do you celebrate each new season?  We try to do something special to mark the day of transition from one season to the next.  Sometimes we work on nature-inspired crafts, like leaf printing or sun prints.  Sometimes we eat special foods or visit the local botanical garden.

Our celebration of the Winter Solstice this year was fairly low-key.  Normally we would have changed the contents of the nature tray, but its space is currently occupied by our birdhouse Advent calendar.  I hung our winter Madonna -- Our Lady of the Snows -- in our entry way.  Baby Jesus with his sweet mittens always makes me smile!

As the short day ended and the long night began, Holly and Lily each received gifts of cute new pajamas and new flashlights.  After supper we went for a flashlight walk -- it was COLD, so this was a quick scurry around the block rather than a leisurely stroll.  We came back home and had freshly baked apple cider cake and hot chocolate while I read The Longest Night by Marion Dane Bauer.  And then we went to bed.

And so one season slipped peacefully into the next.