It’s hard to believe we are already in the third week of Advent. It always does fly by. Our approach to celebrating Advent this year has been to slowly and incrementally add decorations around the house (Nativity sets and Advent wreath one week, stockings and door wreath the next, Christmas tree and ornaments the next, etc), which has had the added benefit of not overwhelming the kids or boring them too quickly. The nightly Advent wreath lighting is still super exciting and the girls kinda-sorta sit through one decade of the Rosary, and then run off while Tom and I indulge in our deep love for Advent hymns, and sing them until the girls fall apart. I also wrapped up all our Christmas/Advent books and got a ton from the library, so we can unwrap one each night when we can get to it. The excitement of unwrapping a book you already own or don’t own at all is real when you’re a toddler– we will be capitalizing on this fact for as long as possible.
It’s been fun and simple, as it should be with a 2.5 and 17 month old. They still ohh and ahh every time we turn on the Christmas tree lights, and they adore their Playmobil 123 Nativity set (it only has like 6 total pieces, which is key in our house, where pieces of toy sets end up everywhere). They also love the Fontanini one, and thank goodness those things are nearly indestructible as well as beautiful (though note: if used as weapons against siblings, they do hurt).
And my two favorite Advent feast days, St. Nicholas and St. Lucy, were especially fun this year:
This girl would not be parted from her “pop” and screamed for quite a while when I took away the second one that was in her shoe (rookie mistake)
St. Lucy’s Morning
The Lady of the Day eats cinnamon buns (not homemade this year because…Sunday morning) in her new St. Lucy jammies
I made a new Lucia Crown for Lucy but she would not stand still for a picture
Lena inherits the old crown, and looks appropriately Swedish in it, no? Note the beloved Playmobil Mary in hand
And just for fun, here’s our St. Lucia the last three years:
Now I’m off to vacuum pine needles of the carpet yet again and figure out where the girls have stashed all the accessible (read: non-breakable and therefore within reach) ornaments. Happy Advent!
For Want of Wonder 