Merry Christmas everyone!

And some I really REALLY want (books)

Olles Reise zu König Winter von Elsa Beskow und Diethild Plattner (I just ordered this one for Xmas)
Pelles neue Kleider von Elsa Beskow
Die Wichtelkinder von Elsa Beskow
Etwas von den Wurzelkindern von Sibylle von Olfers
Christof und die Tiere von Christiane Lesch

Our absolute Favorites (books)

Meine ersten Geschichten von Anne Steinwart und Dagmar Geisler von Oetinger

Das große Gähnen: Eine Zoo- und Gutenacht-Geschichte von Monika Spang und Sonja Bougaeva von Atlantis, Orell Füssli

Die Krickelkrakels. Das bewegte Buch von Die Krickelkrakels von Oetinger

Henriette Bimmelbahn von James Krüss und Lisl Stich

Klumpedump und Schnickelschnack von Bettina Stietencron und Hedwig Diestel

Bobo reist aufs Land
von Hakon Mielche

The little star (continued)

Both Lenara and I really enjoy our new little tradition. She wants to read the book about the little star about every night. We light up the room only with candles and I read it to her. A magical atmosphere. Last night Lenara surprised me. After I had read the book one time, she asked to look through it again. She recited every (EVERY!) line of the book - correctly. And it's not an easy language - but rhymes. Children remember rhymes so quickly. Amazing!!! It was so fascinating to watch her. And she was proud of herself indeed.

This is what our scene looks like right now:

1st Sunday in Advent = Scenery
2nd Sunday in Advent = Stars, Sheep & Cock
3rd Sunday in Advent = Ox & Donkey






to come:

4th Sunday in Advent = Flower (Christmas Rose)
Christmas Eve = Baby Jesus with Maria & Joseph

An easy Origami Star for candles

Video instructions here: Kirigami mit Christian . Easy to follow and quickly made. Lenara was very fascinated while watching me do this...

How to knit a Farm OR our own little Christmas Story

Our day nanny encouraged us parents to think about our own Christmas and Advent traditions. Once again I realized that so far most traditions stem from my own parents. I'm really willing to find some own and implement something meaningful into our own little family (it's really interesting, now that we have a male part added to our mini-family, I start feeling more like a separate family - seperate from my parents' family and aware of our own unit).

One idea was to realise a little story into a Waldorf season's table kind of scene. I bought this book for Advent. It tells about two stars leading a cock, a sheep, a donkey and a cow to the house of baby jesus. It's very simple and perfect for 2-3 year olds.



So for the first advent Sunday I set up a natural scene. Lenara is so proud of her own little christmas tree. ;) We don't have room for a real christmas tree, so I thought this was a really cute idea.



I will make a star and we'll add it to the scene tonight (I meant to do that yesterday, but I only got the book from Amazon today). The following Sundays until Christmas I'm planning to add the animals and eventually the scene with baby Jesus. And I'm hoping we'll read the book every once in a while, so the scene becomes meaningful.

The only problem: I don't have any of the animals/figures... except for a sheep and baby Jesus (in a nutshell). So I looked up how to make them. I don't have a lot of time, so I'm happy this story just includes 4 animals. And I just found some really awesome free instructions for knitting a farm in Waldorf style.

I'm not sure, if it's easy enough for me and the little time I have. But I really want to do it. Besides it's an awesome idea to make more animals at one point.

I'm really excited about this new TRADITION becoming alive. Fingers crossed...

Mickey Mouse in da House