Winter Solstice celebration

We celebrated winter solstice this week, and it was a lovely experience.  P and J woke to find two sun finger puppets waiting for them at the breakfast table.

We lit some candles and the fire and spent the day without electric lighting.

And boy was it a Winter's day.

When the sun came out in the afternoon, we went for a winter solstice walk.

And splashed in some puddles.

It was really fun to develop a celebration that is unique to our family, and that will hopefully continue for many more years.  There were a couple of things that I wanted to do as part of the celebration that we didn't get the chance.  I wanted to plant some garlic in the garden (which is traditionally planted at Winter solstice and harvested at Summer solstice).  But it was so wet, we didn't manage it.  The other thing I thought would be a great Winter Solstice activity was to make a bird feeder, but again the weather was against us.

I think next year we will have a candlelit feast as well.

Winter Solstice

Mount Taranaki, isn't he majestic?

My project this week is to create some traditions around Winter Solstice.  This Wednesday is the shortest day of the year, and I've decided it might be nice to celebrate this festival with the girls.  There are some really nice ideas and thoughts in the Rhythm of the Home Winter editions.  I don't think I will go so far as fasting and staying up all night, but I will be trying to create a few winter celebration traditions with our family.