Devine Details: December 2010

Celebrating our Celtic Roots on the Longest Night

I don't know how my mother would have felt about this -- might have been a bit too pagan for her. But I like to think of it as exploring our celtic roots.

Julia and I have a little tradition to celebrate the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year on June 21, so since we were off so early from school this year, we decided that we'd do something for commemorate the longest night of the year.

I remember seeing a Little Bear episode when Julia was little that had the gang celebrating the longest night of the year by decorating the forest with treats for the animals and birds. That got me thinking....perhaps some bird feeders made from pine cones.

Off to the park we went to collect some of nature's treasures.

And then to Carmel's classroom to craft the peanut butter and birdseed treats. Not to worry -- we cleaned and washed our work table in the nut-free classroom.

Necessity is the mother of invention as Carmel showed --

a little holder to keep our sticky feeders.

1. Thread. 2. Spread . 3. Dip.

4. Hang.

First we started with the little pine tree in Carmel's front yard.

She hoped that the treats would attract some cardinals

to her tree.

As of Christmas Eve, there have been no takers.

However, the trees in the park by Papa's house that we decorated

have been stripped bare of their treats.

Tried to get an artistic shot here to pay tribute to the longest night.

No such luck though.

But we enjoyed the craft,

the frolicing in the snow to decorate trees in the dark,

the occasional errant snowball whizzing overhead,

and the thought that tomorrow we'd be a day closer to the

shortest day of the year.

Next year -- we will add snow candles to the list of solstice activities --

if Mother Nature and the weather cooperate.

Cousin Christmas

Only with the threat of tickling Michael and Jack am I able to get them to cooperate for a cousin photo. Must be the age. But we got the job done, with the stockings made over the years for each of them in tow.

Our time together in November when my mum and their nana died was bittersweet.

It was a time when I saw the age gaps narrow and a close bond grow.

We didn't grow up with cousins close to our age here in Canada,

so I'm thankful that our kids have this connection.

God bless them, every one.

One Stop for the Gingerbread Train

The gingerbread train made only one stop this year -- Sarnia! Everyone climbed aboard in Carmel's kitchen for a new version of this holiday tradition. Since Shaun and Christine and their brood were leaving to celebrate their Christmas in Costa Rica, we did an early version of the cousin Christmas which included one marathon gingerbread session.

Sara took over making the last two batches of dough the night before -- for the record we did four batches of dough -- just the right amount for all seven eager cookie makers to get their hands dirty and work some creative holiday magic.

I got this little holiday spatula for Carmel, and she also got cute gingerbread tea towels from Christine. It's all about the accessories.

I can't even tell you how rewarding it was for me to see these three "man big" boys creating their crazy fleets of dive bomber birds, ninja gingerbread guys, and other video game worthy creatures. You might think that they would be too cool for the activity but doing it together really inspired them to see which one would be the alpha baker.