Well, good morning!  It has been so long since I have written anything!  I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!  We had a great time with family - cousins laughing and giggling, Aunts and Uncles, Granparents... I love the sound of family laughter.

I really miss blogging and sharing with all of you!

Over the past week we had our holiday parade in town - so much fun!  The youth were busy working at our house all week "creating" their float.  Then on Nov. 22nd we marched down the main street of our town and saw many faces we knew!

Our little town of Roseville is turning 100 years old - little older but that is when it was incorporated - and will have a float in the Roseville Tournament of Roses Parade next year.  Look for us if you watch that parade.  They are getting volunteers to start attaching stuff.  Could be a lot of fun!

I jhave been overseeing a Keeper's group for my homeschool coop.  We have been working on crocheting and the girls are busily making hats for charity.  The great thing is that the boys are even being inspired.  I was at my friends house last night and her one son has chain stitched a rope that goes the length of their house - or further?  I challenged him to measure it for me :)

I will try and share some pics.  I so enjoy getting a glimpse into your life that way :)

Blessings,

Flossie

 

For the next few weeks I’ll be sharing a bit of what we are doing for our Season of Christmas here on the homestead. How we are working to make things quieter and reflective for the Advent weeks leading up to Christmas and then how we’ll celebrate like crazy for the 12 Days of Christmas and our plans to wrap it all up with a special conclusion on Epiphany.
Let us start with week one.

Advent
This is the week of Waiting.

Be patient . . . . until the coming of the Lord. James 5:7

To celebrate this week we will:
a List things it is hard to wait for
a Write a poem, story or draw a picture about how it feels to wait
a Write out the above verse and memorize it
a Pray for others who have to wait for things they need
a Donate outgrown and gently-used holiday clothes to the local free store

This year we are making the decision to celebrate a bit differently.
Christmas is not just a day. It is a season and, as I recently learned, it has three traditional parts.
The first part is the sober, reflective, preparatory time of Advent.
Then comes Christmastide, the twelve days of celebration beginning with Christmas Day.
And thirdly is Epiphany. January 6^th. The day we celebrate the arrival of the three wise men with their special gifts for Jesus.
Each part of the season is important. Advent is the quieting of our hearts and minds, the silence and solitude, the clearing out of the old to make way for the new. Then we are quickly swept into the joy and merry making, the glorious light and rejoicing that is Christmas. Which leads us into the wondering conclusion, Epiphany, the giving of gifts to a needy world.
We are celebrating the Season of Christmas. Our little family will be spending this week and the next three weeks in Advent. Taking time to celebrate the time of waiting, the time of hoping, the time of preparing and the time of welcoming in special unique ways.
I am, right now, working on our Christmastide celebrations- something special and significant for the 12 Days of Christmas that doesn’t include pear trees and drummers drumming.
We’ve already decided that we will celebrate Epiphany by taking our boxes of non-perishables to the local food bank.
There is so much we could be doing, perhaps should be doing in the midst of this Season. But I have also come to realize that the bigger and grander, “more meaningful” I try to make things- and all at once- in one big gulp—the higher my rate of failure.
This is something I don’t want to fail at. Over the last few Christmases we’ve really changed our attitude here in our home and so this is simply the next step for us. And next year we will add something more- building on the foundation we are creating as a family.
And in the process, I hope,
Making New Traditions.
Meaningful Traditions.