Preparing for Autumn-Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding

Forgive me, I totally forgot to take any pictures of this before we ate it all up, but it's too good not to share.  I'm sure I'll be making it again soon and I'll try to take a picture and post it before it's gobbled up.

Recently, W and I have been eating Greek yogurt with a little granola, chia seeds and walnuts for breakfast.  It's been one of the few breakfasts that seems to fill him up and stay with him for any period of time.  Anything else and he's hungry again in 15 minutes.  Second and third breakfasts were becoming common place at our house because W was just always hungry till we started on the Greek yogurt/granola combo.  So yesterday I found this recipe for Pumpkin pie chia pudding and it sounded so, so good, but I knew to meet our current  nutritional needs, it needed some changes.  I'd been craving pumpkin pie for some reason all day and had bought a little canned pumpkin thinking I'd try to make myself something to quell that craving.

So, I came up with my version of Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding, made with W's beloved Greek Yogurt, and using stevia to replace much of the maple syrup (I left a little in just for some lovely maple flavor).

The verdict is that this is some seriously yummy stuff!  Perfect for fall!  W ate his with his usual granola and walnuts (I just had walnuts to top mine).  W told me that "It is spicy but it's my favorite!" It also seemed to fill him up adequately enough to make another good breakfast choice for our family.  It's nice to have a little variety from time to time, so I'm working on variations of our basic tried and true breakfast.

Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding
(makes three servings)

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (ours is from Frontier)
3-4 drops liquid stevia (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup

Mix all ingredients, pour into single serving dishes and refrigeration overnight.  Top with your favorite granola and walnuts if desired.

Of Oak Leaves and Acorns...... A Yarn Along Post

Do you feel that slight nip on the breeze?  It's subtle....but it's there....that first hint in the air that fall is on it's way!  After this miserable, hot summer it makes my heart sing!  I always love that first glimpse that my favorite time of year is on it's way.  I start wanting to cook our family's favorite fall dishes, lots of pumpkin flavored things, cranberry, apple stuffed pork chops, soups, etc.  School starts soon and there's the anticipation of W going off to school a few mornings a week by himself for the first time and all the back to school preparations that need to be made.  His sweater and vest that he wanted for school this year are completed (and still both need to be photographed...but as I  write this he is napping and I'm afraid I will wake him if I try to get them out of his dresser drawer).  I'm working on a pair of socks for him for this year.....struggling to keep working on them.  I love the pattern, but I think the plain blue yarn is boring me to tears.  Hard to work on them when there are more exciting things to knit these days.

Our family's favorite sign that fall is around the corner though is that acorn season seems to be upon us!  W discovered acorns by a parking lot the other day and was beside himself with excitement (I might have been too actually) and we picked up quite a few to start off our yearly collection.  The following day we found more at a local park.  The child is in acorn heaven and this sign of fall is about to start taking over our nature table, and his room, and our cars.  It's just that time of year!

As luck would have it, I've been knitting more little hats for the baby, since our midwife wants us to have quite a few for it as soon as it is born.  I've made several of my favorite pilot caps, but decided a few other little caps might come in handy too.  They are quick and enjoyable to knit.  For the second one I made, I decided to use the cables from the Forever Autumn sock pattern, and repeat it five times around a little cap.  It's darling, but I think the colorway of the yarn might be a little too busy for the cables.  Still, I love that my autumn baby will have some oak leaves on one of it's first little caps, and it matches one of the little sweaters I made for the baby over the summer.

Then I decided that I really need an oak leaf cabled hat too, so I used some Andes Del Campo in Smolder Heather from knit picks that I had on hand and size 8 needles to make myself a cap from the same pattern.  Oh, it is love!  I adore oak trees, leaves and acorns, and I am especially fond of that orangey- golden brown that many oak leaves turn in the fall.  I didn't realize it at first, but this yarn is that color....just beautiful....and it goes with my brown winter coat too!  I couldn't stop with the hat though and also had to make myself a lovely  matching cowl to wear with it (sorry I haven't blocked the cowl yet in the picture.  It just came off my needles this morning.)  I am so excited!  It feels strange and luxurious to knit something for myself again, when I've been focusing so hard on knitting for W and for the baby.  Actually, I don't think I've knit anything for myself in over a year so this is a real special treat!  If I ever get W's socks off of my size 2 dpn's I'm going to finally cast on a pair of the Forever Autumn socks for me too.  I think they'd be a lovely thing to give myself for my birthday this fall!

Okay, so, on to the Yarn Along portion of the post.  I'm joining with Ginny of Small Things for her Yarn Along again.

I'm knitting yet another oak leaf newborn cap out of this lovely green wool tweed yarn (sorry I just cast it on this afternoon).  I'm guessing the leaf pattern should stand out better in the tweed than it did with the busy colorway of the last one I made.  I'm pretty excited about knitting yet another one of these.  I need to come up with something for W with this pattern on it too.  He says he doesn't want a hat or cowl...maybe I'll put it on a Milo vest for him (I may have already done one like this for the baby).  I've almost got the pattern memorized at this point.    Maybe that should be a birthday present for him.  I think he'd like that.

For reading, I've been working my way through The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk. There are several possible reasons I had difficulties with my supply when W was a baby, and I'm trying to be prepared to get my nursing relationship with this little one off to as good of a start as I possibly can.  How I wish I had this book the last time around. You would never know it now, but it was such a struggle to feed W and to get him to actually gain weight as a baby and really I had very little support or knowledge, just a determination that I was going to feed my baby every drop of my breast milk that I could even if I still did have to supplement.  It was so emotionally and physically exhausting.  This time around I have so much more support, and knowledge and experience and I am going into nursing, knowing I've had issues in the past and with a much better idea of how to prevent/ minimize/work through them this time around.  This book is invaluable for any mom who is going through this.  Such a great resource!

Still around...

It's been too long since I've posted on here yet again.  We've been BUSY!  Apple picking, fall festivals at our previous Waldorf school and our new school, making apple butter, trips to go visit friends, a trip to Williamsburg, trying to establish our autumn rhythm and in my case having one of the worst colds I can remember.  Of course, I've not managed to document most of this because my camera battery is dead and I haven't been able to locate my charger since our vacation out west ( I need to write more about that too, but not tonight).

Today was the fall festival at our new school.  It was a magical day for W and I.  It felt so good to be at the school, surrounded by such a beautiful, caring community, and engaged in lovely activities.  W got to make a bird feeder and a little sachet that he's keeping under his pillow.  He also dug for buried treasure, and played with a beautiful marble run.  We  watched a wonderful puppet play performed by his teacher.  He was also very excited because he was able to sit by her lovely assistant teacher during the performance.  His two favorite things though were a delightful children's musician who let W play the bongos while he sang (my boy LOVES drums) and shucking corn.  Seriously, my thumbs hurt because he wanted me to constantly be shucking the corn too.  We did this for hours at a time!  I wish I had my camera today.  He was just so happy and engaged in his work all day.  I'm thinking I need to be getting some of this corn so he can do this at home too.  His corn bin is getting sparse again and he clearly thinks this is a fantastic activity.

I'm also starting to think about Christmas.  I'd like to do all handmade again this year but I feel like I'm running terribly behind and I'm not totally sure what to do for everyone yet.  Most of my ideas seem to be for W and I'm working to balance them out between for his birthday and Christmas.  I did get one gift completed this week while I tried to rest and recover from this cold.  My mom the other day found a needle-felted nativity on Etsy and loved the idea so much she just could not stop talking about it.  Hint.  Hint.  So I set about starting one for her.  I have made the principal figures of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  I'm fairly pleased with how these have come out.  I plan on working on additional pieces to add to it in the coming years.  I had initially planned to make the large set all this year, but I would like to have time to make gifts for other people too.

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to share a quick post with you all about our Halloween last night.

We had a great time but everything felt very last minute and  I wasn't nearly as organized as I would have preferred.  I usually try to carve pumpkins on the 30th, but didn't get it done.  I also had to spend a couple hours finishing the head for my husband's longhorn cow costume on Halloween itself.  My mom made the costume, but didn't quite get it finished before she had to send it (I received it on the 30th)!  That left me to finish it in a panic.

W's costume was pretty easy.  He was a cowboy (a very cute little cowboy if I say so myself).  My mom lives out west and had purchased the chaps, vest and boots for him from a western wear store before he was even born, and sent him his (3rd maybe?...we seem to go through them) cowboy hat  a couple of months ago.

After I finished the cow head I had to carve pumpkins.  I frantically carved three of the four jack o' lanterns in the hour and a half before trick or treating began.  They may not be my best jack o'lantern's ever, but I'm pretty happy with how the turned out.

I also very quickly made these cute little luminaries to put on our walk.  They were inspired by these from Moment to Moment.

And  I just have to share one last picture of my guys...the cowboy and his longhorn cow back from a long walk trick or treating!

BTW the Great Pumpkin came to visit W last night and left him a couple of lovely Halloween books, some pretzels, once piece of candy and some play dough that W got trick or treating.  For folks out there who give out play dough, pretzels and other non-candy items, this mama thanks you!  It's really nice for the Great Pumpkin to be able to give these items back for a child to enjoy without causing havoc in our home and sleep schedules with sugary treats!

Also, be sure to check out our family's November gratitude tree on my Counting Our Blessings page.

A Family Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This past week we made a trip to Gallmeyer Farms to visit the pumpkin patch.  We had a great time and W and I really enjoyed having Daddy come with us this year!   We told W he needed to wear a hat so he insisted on wearing his fabulous gnome hat made by by very talented friend over at Blue Iris Hand Crafts (she is the friend I have shared a booth with at our Waldorf School's Holiday Bizarre/Fest of Fall for the past two years and her things are beautiful)!  I love this hat and I think W chose the perfect hat for the pumpkin patch!   Daddy of course picked out a huge pumpkin which our little gnome had quite a time trying to push in the wheelbarrow!

W also picked out his own smaller pumpkin which he tried to carry around himself...but it was really heavy!

So we put it in the wheelbarrow with Daddy's and let him try to push both pumpkins.

We also took a family trip through the hay maze.

And ended our trip with hayride.  W especially loved riding behind the tractor and getting to see the turkeys they keep at the farm.

We are eagerly awaiting carving our pumpkins for Halloween but enjoying them while they grace our front steps!

Apple Picking for My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday last week and had a wonderful time! I took a break from preparing for the Fest of Fall and W and I went apple picking with some of our neighbors at Carter Mountain. It was a beautiful day.

We picked lots of Jonagold apples and then had apple doughnuts and what I think must be the best apple cider I've had in a long time.  It was so much fun watching the kids picking the apples.

Of course we all had to sample some as well.  They were delicious!  One of our neighbor girls declared them "the best apples ever" and she might have been right.  Eating them while sitting between rows of trees in  the orchard, you really couldn't get any better than that!

 W ate one that was almost as big as he is and he loved every bite of it.  We've been eating our wonderful apples all week and have been so grateful to have them and happy that we know exactly where they came from.  It was a wonderful morning!

We finished off the day having a dinner out with Daddy at one of our favorite Italian places and then topped it off with gelato from DeLuca's.  I had pumpkin and amaretto gelato.......yummmm!  DeLuca's is one of my favorite places.  We rarely go there but when we do it is such a wonderful treat!

The day after, W and I went to the Richmond Folk Festival.  It was wonderful! Our family always says how lucky we are to live in a place that has such wonderful festivals and I think this one is the best of them all!

 W and  I listened to lots of bluegrass and oldtime music (which luckily he enjoys as much as I do at this point), and both particularly enjoyed the female Cajun group BonSoir, Catin.  W gave me the cd for my birthday and we've been listening to it all week.  W claps for many of the songs each time he hears them and we've been dancing and singing along when I manage to figure out the French words.  We topped the folk festival off by listening to the Sand Mountain Sacred Harp Singers.  I love shape note singing and it was a real treat to see  a live performance of it!  If you've not heard it before, there's a sample on the Richmond Folk Festival's Performer's page. This music gives me goose bumps!

I had a wonderful couple of days celebration and then it was back to work.  The Fest of Fall at our local Waldorf School is tomorrow, and surprisingly, I'm ready and really looking forward to it! Of course, best of all is that unlike last year, I'll actually get to sleep the night before the sale.  I won't say I haven't pulled a couple of all nighters this week, but at least these last couple days before the sale I'm able to catch up on my sleep and I should be able to go and be present and really enjoy it!  I'll be back afterwards with pictures!

Fest of Fall Items

I finally have pictures of a few of the items I have made so far to sell at the Fest of Fall.

And since we are also trying to enjoy this beautiful fall season, here's a photo of  W and I picking apples this morning.  We had such a wonderful time!

We've Been Under The Weather...and The Pressure's On!

I haven't posted since Michaelmas because W and I have both been a bit under the weather.  I've been hit with a not so fun cold and W seems to have a combination of teething (those 2 year molars) and possible allergies.  He never seemed to get a cold like I did, but he has had a runny nose and is drooling like nothing I have ever seen.  When he was an infant I soaked up all that drool with the constant use of bibs but now he's such a big boy he won't wear one and his front is constantly drenched.  I am tempted to  knit up some sort of wool drool soaker to go around his neck but under his clothes.  With the weather changing I'm so afraid he will end up really getting chilled going outside sopping wet from the drool.  Of course, I have next to no time to work on this right now.

Time is short and the pressure is on.  Our rhythm is all over the place and I have suspended all Christmas present making (as well as most house keeping) till after October 16th!  "Why?" you might ask.  Because earlier this week I agreed to share a table with my friend L at our local Waldorf school's Fest of Fall selling my wool creations.  Last year we shared a table for the Holiday Bizarre at the school and had such a wonderful time and I am really looking forward to this year's event!

Here are some pictures L took of our table from last year.  Her beautiful items are on the left and my things are on the right.  W is a big fan of her gnome hats and her little gnomes!  He  wears the hat and plays with his little gnome almost daily.

I am deep into production mode here at the moment and have been keeping my hands busy during the day knitting and working intensely on needle felting items during nap times and late into the night. I need to take some pictures or the items I have finished (if I ever can get  a hold of the camera during daylight hours to take these pictures) and post them here to give you all a taste of what I will be selling.  Okay, back to work!  I'll be back to blogging after we get through the festival.

Happy Michaelmas!

Our Michaelmas celebration was delayed by a day since on Michaelmas itself Daddy spent the evening at our local Waldorf School's parent meeting for the parent and toddler class and I was at a women's group at church.  We typically try to celebrate the Waldorf (and other) festivals at dinner time when Daddy is home to celebrate with us though W and I do lots of preparations ahead of time.

I'm actually pretty excited that Daddy will be going to the class with W, though I'm sad that I can't be there this session due to my work schedule.  I think it's a great opportunity for Daddy to learn more about Waldorf from someone other than me and it will allow him to better support what I do with W at home.  It's also nice that they are going to have a thing that they do together and the fact that it's at the Waldorf School is just perfect if you ask me!

Okay, so back to Michaelmas.  This was our second year celebrating and of course this year it was fun to make it a bit more interactive for W.  I know in the coming years there will be even more celebration activities that he will enjoy so much.  For this year, I kept it pretty simple.  A song, a couple verses and we added a candle and a couple of new foods to our celebration.

W and I have been singing the Michaelmas song from Come Follow Me daily during our September Circle Time and we sang it multiple times today.  It's fun now as he gets a little older he sings along when I sing a song he knows and I can actually tell what he's singing.  This evening we also sang it for Daddy at dinner time right after we said grace.   W and A helped to collect the asters, leaves and acorns that we used to decorate the table for this lovely fall festival as well.

I also made a rolled beeswax dragon candle for Michaelmas a couple of weeks ago.  We generally light a candle when we eat, so we will use this candle at meals throughout the autumn months to remind us of Michael's strength, courage and protection.  It was fun to make a rolled candle and then warm and mold bits of the wax sheets into a dragon to decorate this special candle.

This morning W helped me to make our dragon bread and blackberry pie.  Unfortunately, a particularly messy situation kept me from getting to the oven when I needed to for our poor dragon.  We are just pretending that he accidentally burnt his own nose and tail while breathing his fire....

W loves dragon bread.  He loved helping to make him, he loves the dried fruit and nuts mixture inside his belly, he loves looking at him and at one point this evening he loved eating the eyes off of him when I wasn't looking.  It was also his favorite part of dinner!

W also loved making the blackberry pie.  He helped to cut out the hearts for the top and he sampled lots of the blackberries for me.  For a while this afternoon he was sporting a little blackberry soul patch.  I wish I had the camera at that point because it was really really cute!

We have blackberry pie for Michaelmas because according to legend when Michael killed the dragon/expelled the devil from heaven, he  landed in a blackberry bush.  It's actually considered bad luck to eat blackberries after Michaelmas.  We will tempt fate and have some today since this is Michaelmas for us!

Traditionally goose is served at Michaelmas, but I stayed with our tradition from last year and made Cornish game hens again with the traditional onion stuffing.  We also have carrots on Michaelmas which is based on one of the traditions discussed here.

This year we also added a special drink for Michaelmas.  W, A and I made homemade ginger ale from this recipe earlier in the week and then let it brew for a couple of days at room temperature before refrigerating it. My suggestion if you make this is to take it outside and open it very slowly.  It probably took me ten minutes or so of opening and closing the bottle to let the gas escape without having a big explosion.  Definitely head the advice given in the comments section for the recipe or it could be a big mess.  It was lots of fun though and we all thought that it tasted really good.  I don't think I ever want to have the store bought stuff again now that I know how yummy this is!  I can't remember now where I saw that it is traditional to have ginger at Michaelmas but I do know that I found this in some of my research this year.  I also added some fresh grated ginger to our blackberry pie this year.

Here is our dragon and our St. Michael picture from our nature table.

Wishing you all warmth, strength and courage in the dark, cold months ahead!

Happy Michaelmas!

Our Early Autumn Nature Table

Our Autumn nature table was not as easy to put together this year as I had anticipated.  Somehow, I can not remember what special place I chose to keep our autumn nature table items safe.  I remember that I did put them away and choose a special place for them while I was putting up the Christmas decorations last year, but, for the life of me, I can't remember or find where.  So, we have basically been starting over from scratch this year.

Here are some pictures of this year's autumn nature table so far.  We have also started putting out some items for Michaelmas including our dragon puzzle and some blue asters.

Also I have done some leaf rubbings which are now framed and hanging up in our dinning room.  I love how they complete the room's seasonal feel (this is also where we have our nature tables).

I leave you this evening with a lovely picture of the harvest moon taken by my husband earlier this week.

Happy Autumn to you all!

A Lovely Oak Tree For Our Autumn Nature Table

I've been trying to involve W and A in decorating the tree on our nature table this autumn.  We have been going on daily nature walks and mostly have been bringing in  lots and lots of acorns.  I'm honestly wondering if the neighborhood squirrels will go hungry this year because these two little ones have brought so many acorns into our house.  We have also collected lots of leaves and sticks and gum balls and rocks, but acorns are definitely their favorite think to collect on our walks!  Luckily, our outdoor play area is a little oak grove with several lovely big oak trees.  Unfortunately, part of the area used to be the neighborhood basketball court and is paved.  Still, there's lots of nature there for our enjoyment and we spend lots of time there!

To reflect this we decided that our nature table tree for fall should be decorated as an oak tree.  We started out by hanging some extra leaves from  our autumnal wreath on the bare tree.  We then added some lovely acorns.

I then had the kids paint with red and orange water colors on both sides of some card stock. Once the paintings dried, I traced my oak leaf cookie cutters and cut out lots of paper leaves in different sizes.  W and I rubbed the leaves with some cooking oil which really made the colors pop and we hung them on the tree.

We also added my sample of the wood pumpkins I'm going to have them paint next week.

Now I just have to figure out where I "put away" the other nature table items from last fall so that we can finish decorating our nature table.

September Circle Time and Babysitting Rhythm

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before in my blog, but I now babysit a little girl, A, who is a few months older than W two mornings and one afternoon a week.  She lives in our neighborhood and they were already playmates, when I offered to watch her so that she wouldn't have to go to a large daycare center anymore.  This situation has been a true blessing for everyone in our family.  W now has a very dear little best friend who he loves very much, and who in some ways acts almost as a sibling for him when she is here.  We love having A stay with us.  She is sweet, but a little bossy at times and has no problems with putting W in his place.  I love seeing them work together to figure things out whether it be settling a disagreement and compromising (with a little gentle guidance) or working for a common goal.  She also has helped him vastly expand his vocabulary and is teaching him some Spanish words too (she's bilingual).  A couple of the other benefits to having her stay with us are that 1) my house is clean at least three days a week and 2) when she is with us we fall into a lovely natural rhythm with different activities on different days and a set order to our day.  Ideally we will get to a point where W and I maintain this rhythm on most days when A is not with us as well.

This blackboard is the background for one of our nature tables.  Each month I try to illustrate it with a drawing and verse from our circle time.  the only problem is that my handwriting was horrible this time (trying not to smear the drawing) but I didn't have the heart to erase the whole thing and start over.

One element I try to maintain with W each day is circle time.  It works a little better on days that A is with us as W wants to participate more because he wants to hold A's hand and because he doesn't want to feel left out.  I try to revise our circle time monthly to keep it seasonal, and some items carry over from one month to the next.  It is also one of the ways that I prepare our family for festivals and celebrations during the month.

Here is our circle time for September:

Call to Circle Song:

                Come Follow

                Come follow, follow, follow,

                 follow, follow, follow me

                Whither shall I follow, follow, follow,

                Whither shall I follow, follow thee?

                To the greenwood, to the greenwood,           

greenwood tree (repeat)

From Come Follow Me

Sit Down Song:

                Ring around the rosie

A pocket full of posy

Ashes, ashes we all fall down

Nursery Rhyme:

                To Makret, To Market

                To market to market to buy a fat pig;

                Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

                To market, to market to buy a fat hog;

                Home again, home again, jiggety-jog

Finger Play:

Signs of Autumn

                When the birds fly south (flap arms)

                And the wind blows cool (shiver)

And the green (hold up hands)

on the trees turns red (Flip palms over)

And the days grow shorter

(Bring hands close together from far apart)

And the nights grow long

(separate hands from close together)

And Jack Frost freezes grass dead

 (point fingers straight up, then slowly curl)

Then summer has done (Wave as if goodbye)

And autumn has come

(Turn to opposite direction; hold arms out)

From Finger Frolics

Leaves are Floating Down

Leaves are floating softly down; (flutter fingers)

They make a carpet on the ground

Then, swish!  The wind comes whirling by

(bring hand around rapidly)

And sends them dancing to the sky

(flutter fingers upward)

From Finger Frolics

               

Songs:    Come Little Leaves

Come little leaves said the Wind one day.
Come over the meadow with me and play.
Put on your dresses of red and gold.
For summer is gone and the days grow cold.

Grow cold, Grow cold (repeat)

From Come Follow Me

Michaelmas

                A knight and a lady went ridding one day

                Far into the forest , away, away

                Dear knight said the lady, I pray have a care

                This forest is evil, beware, beware

                A fiery red dragon they spied on the grass

                The lady wept sorely alas, alas

                The night slew the dragon, the lady was gay,

                They rode on together away, away, away

From Come Follow Me

Verses:

…Apples, Apples  everywhere,

please let me have just one,

and just two more please tree,

then September Will be done.

From September-Around the Year

…By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

From September by Helen Hunt Jackson

"The goldenrod is yellow
The corn is turning brown
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down."
-  Children’s song

Religious Verse:

                You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

-Matthew 22:39

Prayer:  

Thank You, dear God, for autumn,

With all the colors bright.

The reds and browns and yellows

Make such a pretty sight.

Amen

(from My First Read and Learn book of Prayers)

Closing Song:       

This Is The Day--Psalm 118:24

                This is the day, this is the day

                That the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made

                We will rejoice,    we will rejoice

                And be glad in it, and be glad in it.

                This is the day that the Lord hath made

                We will rejoice and be glad in it

                This is the day, this is the day

                That the Lord hath made.

Creating Traditions

DS is now a year old and our little family is working very hard at starting some traditions of our very own and finding some rhythm in what can be a crazy season.

DS's birthday falls towards the end of November near Thanksgiving. This year I made him a birthday crown which he wore on the day of his party and on his actual birthday. It turned out really nice and has an accorn, a maple leaf and a pilgram on it. I followed the wonderful tutorial from Nicole at Frontier Dreams. I was also impressed and greatful that family and friends respected our no plastic toys rule. DS was blessed to recieve some beautiful wooden toys as well as gift cards which were used for some bigger ticket items we needed/wanted (like a much needed gate for the bottom of the stairs and a wooden riding toy).

On Thanksgiving morning I shared one of my favorite traditions with DS, getting up early and taking him for a walk, enjoying the time outside and everything that we have to be grateful for. I find it also helps center me for all of the family craziness that ensues later in the day.

It seems that we were then immediately in the Christmas season. We have several new traditions this year.

With DS being just a year old it seemed that my collection of beautiful handblown glass Christmas tree ornaments was not going to be practical and I was at a bit of a loss on decorating our Christmas tree. I decided that we would aim for a mostly non-breakable, homespun tree this year that incorporated more natural materials. The result has been lovely. I crochet chained about 15 yards of garland for the tree out of red wool and needle fleted an angel for the top of the tree.

For ornaments I tied pinecones on the tree with red yarn. I also hung up lots of bells, some Swedish straw ornaments, some non-edible cut out gingerbread ornaments made from apple pulp, spices and glue (it smells incredible) and some beautiful wood ornaments I bought at the Richmond Waldorf School's Holiday Bazaar.

I did also hang a couple of glass ornaments including some toadstools, a pilgram and a gnome that I just could not resist.

Also, I put this one little plastic elf on the tree. He is very special to me as he was always on the tree at my grandparents house as a kid.

I also started using our wooden advent calendar with doors on it to hold an ornament for each day which we hang up as a family. I am still needle felting these ornaments. So far they have include a holy leaf, toadstools, a pickle (like the German glass pickles) and figures from the nativity.

(more on our traditions and celebrations to come later)