The Lilting House Archive

Worms?

Just had to share this clip of Beanie discovering treasure in her stocking last year. How will St. Nick ever top those ponytail holders?

Works For Me Wednesday

You all know about Works For Me Wednesday, right? It's a collection of helpful hints hosted by Rocks in My Dryer, and people from all over the blogosphere submit their own nuggets of useful advice. Very cool. I have a Works For Me tidbit I keep meaning to share, and I popped over there today to enter the link. Turns out today is the special Christmas edition! My tidbit isn't Christmas-specific, so I guess I'll save it. But there's a lot of nifty stuff there. I especially like this make-your-own stationery gift set idea from The Wilson Six.

Let's see, do I have any good Christmas advice to share? Well, there's the Kringle tradition...the year Wonderboy was born, a friend of mine sent us a scrumptious Kringle from the O & H Bakery. So. Very. Good. We actually ate ours on the feast of St. Lucy instead of Christmas morning as my friend had intended, because—it really was incredible—her gift happened to arrive the day before St. Lucy's feast day, and Scott and I were still in the NICU with Wonderboy, and on our way home from the hospital late that night I realized to my horror that the next morning was the day our little girls would be expecting to dress up with crowns of candles and serve sweet rolls to Daddy in bed. I had nothing in the house that could pass for sweet rolls (or so I thought), and though I knew the girls could make do with cinnamon toast like in my little picture book, Hanna's Christmas, I still felt so bad. We'd had a terrible week, what with the surprise surgery Wonderboy needed right after he was born, and I hated to disappoint my girls, who had been on such a roller-coaster all week.

And then we got home from the hospital and my mother, who was staying with the girls, told me a package marked "Refrigerate immediately" had arrived that day. It was the Kringle. (Tami, thank you again!) My little clan of Lucias served it to Daddy next morning, and we've continued the tradition every year since. I order one to arrive around December 10th, to be sure I have it in time for the feast of St. Lucy on December 13.

(Oh, and the O & H Bakery offers a Kringle giveaway drawing every week!)

For more wonderful Christmas inspiration, do check out the  group blog called O Night Divine. Some of my favorite homeschooling mothers have come together to share their ideas for making Advent and Christmas holy and (this is key) serene. This week, Alice of Cottage Blessings posted a simply stunning Advent activity—it's a lovely and original craft in which simple wooden cubes are used to bring to life many Advent traditions such as the Jesse Tree, sacrifice and good deeds, and the Nativity set. Brilliant and beautiful, just like Alice. 

Also—because I figure if you can't be the first person to share a link, you ought to be the last—don't miss The Loveliness of Homemade Gifts fair at By Sun and Candlelight!