Solstice and Christmas... in a Nutshell

I had been meaning to post all of last week, even had a handful of pictures uploaded. But that, quite obviously, didn't happen. So here are our Solstice and Christmas festivities in pictures.

Lots of crafting. The girls really enjoyed decorating the front of these canvas bags. Love these fabric crayons from Pentel. I'm sure we'll find lots of uses for them for gifts and such in the future.

Truth be told, we haven't finished handing them all out as we are still not finished baking goodies for the inside. That's OK, though. Everyone appreciates a little extra something after the holidays.

(Treats for our animal friends, made on Solstice.)

(Winter fairy, an extra gift from Erin. The Holly fairy in the back is from Rjabinnik.)
Most of our gifts were opened on Solstice but here are the last few, tucked under the tree on Christmas Eve night. I'll share pictures of the doll I stayed up late making in a day or so. It was my first attempt at a Waldorf style doll and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

(Duck prints.)

We enjoyed our first white Christmas that I think any of us has ever had. How magical and unexpected to wake up Christmas morning to snow falling. After opening gifts we went to my brother's for breakfast. By then we had a good coverage and the girls trooped out into the snow, running and making snow angels.

And now we begin to put away the holiday things and clean up the mess from our festivities. I truly enjoy this quite, introspective time between Christmas and New Year. Time to do some decluttering and reevaluating, both in our homes and our personal lives. There is a slow, and comfortable pace as we pull out the year past and look it over. Here I can see what should be kept and worked upon, what didn't work for us and should be let go. A time for new ideas and new goals, resolutions and making peace with the year's failures and frustrations.

The snow is casting a lovely light that is not normally seen in this dim house. I see these cold and frosty days as a wonderful way to start a new, sparkling year, a fresh clean start.

I hope you all enjoy this quite time before the new year. May it bring you peace and light.