Playgarden has finally started back up again! After the big move to the farm, it took a while for everyone to be situated and for everyone to work out a schedule again, but we are so glad to be seeing our dear friends again. The farm is such a delightful place to meet and explore. They have a "bamboo forest" which in reality is really too small to really get lost in, but the kids have a great time weaving through. They have rabbits and chickens too!
After feeding the chickens, we found one wee one that needed a little bit of help. The kids made a separate house for the little guy so he could be brought inside.
Our Playgarden fell in the middle of the first week of advent, which is stone week! We went for a nice walk together and each found a special rock. Then we went inside and everyone picked out some roving, got their hands all wet and bubbly, and wet felted the fibers around their special rocks. After the fibers had tightened up around the rocks, we did a cheat and threw them in the dryer. Sadly, not all of them survived the dryer and some of the rocks lost their felt. In hindsight, we should have put them in a delicates bag.
We are very lucky to live very close to a city that is very festive during the holiday season. They have a few blocks of illuminated reindeer, a huge Christmas tree, and most of the tall buildings lined with lights. We attended the "Grand Illumination" a in years past and have not enjoyed the very, very busy crowds. This year, we decided to stay on the peripherals of the city and watch them turn on the lights from afar. We tuned into the radio station that was helping run the event, and did the count down from the car. It was lovely! Way more comfortable than the crazy crowds and we didn't have to deal with the traffic!
On Saturday, we went to the Charlottesville Waldorf Holiday Bazaar at the Charlottesville Waldorf School. What a beautiful campus they have!! I didn't take many pictures at the event because I had my hands full with the kids and trying to sneakily buy Christmas presents. :) They had many vendors selling beautiful handmade wares, along with the school's "bookstore" booth that had the beeswax crayons, books, Sarah's Silks, and wooden toys. So many fun things! I wanted to buy everything. One thing that I am very glad I scored was a set of beeswax candles for our new Advent spiral.
The kids had the opportunity to make their own beeswax candles there as well! They had a fourth grade classroom, with the ground completely covered in cardboard and the tables covered in paper. There was a rectangle of tables with about six cans of hot beeswax around them. The children were given a wick on a clothes pin and sent into the rotation! They were free to continue around the ring until their candle was the size that they wanted. It was a very unique experience.
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| Their finished, beautiful candles. |
When we got home, our Advent Spiral had come in the mail, and I had just bought candles so we had our first night of lighting the candles. (Only six days late starting...) It is a new tradition for us that I am very excited to continue.
The spiral was made by Oak Tree Vibrations and he candles were all made by Crystal Mountain Beeswax.
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