This past Saturday morning, we braved the chilly weather, like we did last year, to attend the Vancouver Waldorf School's Christmas Fair. A most memorable activity at this wonderful fair from last year was visiting the "Cookie House" to select a decorated gingerbread cookie from amongst many all hung on curtains from ceiling to floor in a small, narrow, dimly-lit, ambient space. We waited in line to experience the wonderful Cookie House again this year, complete with an elf to guard the house, as well as a fairy, to assist with the cookie selection. As you can see, R knew his immediate plans for his cookie upon leaving the "house".
There were many beautiful wreaths and table centerpieces being created all around us.....
...and new experiences to be had.... candle dipping!!!
in another dimly-lit, but magical room decorated with winter scenes, lots of stars and tiny lights...
...and warm, nurturing teachers that made all the activities at this fair so meaningful. D really got into making and dipping his own candle, deciding on his own how many more times he wanted to walk around the table to dip his candle into the wax pots.
Other cool activities included puppet plays, silk painting, visiting a winter wonderland and woodland pond, woodworking, and a variety of musical offerings around the school. And what's a Christmas fair without a "Marketplace", which was so crowded that I barely looked for fear of losing the boys. I did, however, pick up my felt order from Natalie of
Bear Dance Crafts who came down for the fair from Kaslo. She offers good quality wool felt in lots of great colours for those of you who are interested.
Here is D's beautifully fragrant candle finished and wrapped with paper tissue and a lovely poem. The poem should read as below, but with the last line, perhaps, intentionally and appropriately left out:
A candle is but a simple thing,
It starts with just a bit of string,
But dipped and dipped with patient hand,
It gathers wax upon the strand,
Until complete and snowy white,
It gives at last a lovely sight.
Life seems so like that bit of string,
Each deed we do a simple thing,
Yet day by day if on life's strand,
We work with patient heart and hand,
It gathers joy makes dark days bright,
And gives at last a lovely light.How we love this fair for its wonderful, meaningful experiences that appeal to all our senses and the child within us!
I've had lots of projects on the go these past few months, mainly baby-related, for a friend at work, whose wife is expecting, and for the upcoming births of my niece and nephew in HK. We just can't wait! I'll finally be an aunt (and to twins!) at the end of March on my side of the family. I'd like to show you some of the projects that I've started for "Thunder" and "Lightning", names my brother and sister-in-law in HK are calling their twins, but I know they check on this blog, so I'll have to show you a little later. In the meantime, I'll show you the Green Leaf Tweed newborn hat that I gifted to my friend at work recently. I was so happy that he loved it. 
As you can see, we had snow earlier in the week, which I'm more than happy to report is quickly disappearing on this beautiful sunny day.
I'm pretty sure this guy is really wishing that he had brought his skateboard with him. I was too lazy to look for all his safety gear, so I convinced him to leave the board at home. Maybe next time...
Besides, he can show you some treasure found...
and be entertained by R who is always making us laugh with his usual made-up expressions and mimicking.
It's the official start to our holiday season now that we've put up the advent calendar. I have a store-bought one that I've never used somewhere in my Christmas decoration boxes, but I thought it would be much more fun to make one after reading this whip up post. I liked the ideas of incorporating a family activity each day and of teaching my two little guys how many "sleeps" there are until Christmas.
Our first activity was to learn how to cut paper snowflakes for our window, seeing as we woke up to this in the morning, and it is still snowing as I write.
This past Saturday morning, we braved the chilly weather, like we did last year, to attend the Vancouver Waldorf School's Christmas Fair. A most memorable activity at this wonderful fair from last year was visiting the "Cookie House" to select a decorated gingerbread cookie from amongst many all hung on curtains from ceiling to floor in a small, narrow, dimly-lit, ambient space. We waited in line to experience the wonderful Cookie House again this year, complete with an elf to guard the house, as well as a fairy, to assist with the cookie selection. As you can see, R knew his immediate plans for his cookie upon leaving the "house".
There were many beautiful wreaths and table centerpieces being created all around us.....
...and new experiences to be had.... candle dipping!!!
in another dimly-lit, but magical room decorated with winter scenes, lots of stars and tiny lights... 
...and warm, nurturing teachers that made all the activities at this fair so meaningful. D really got into making and dipping his own candle, deciding on his own how many more times he wanted to walk around the table to dip his candle into the wax pots.
Here is D's beautifully fragrant candle finished and wrapped with paper tissue and a lovely poem. The poem should read as below, but with the last line, perhaps, intentionally and appropriately left out:
This is what we woke up to yesterday and I believe it was -11degrees C (-18 degrees C with wind chill) overnight. Beautiful to look at, but I think I much prefer it up in the mountains. If only I had a fireplace! That would definitely make winter a whole lot better.....and of course more time to knit and spin. That wheel of mine has been in the same location in the living room for two months now, and gets an occasional spin from R, who thinks it's funny to get a reaction from me. I guess it's a good reminder that I need to use it. I promise you that it is ignored, but not abandonned. 
