Makeshift Story: Friday Update: The solstice fairies

Often when things get too quiet, I enter a room, and discover untold atrocities. Other times, however, I find this.

December is here!(?) This means that the solstice/advent calendar that I made last year has been hung on the wall. More than simply adding some festive decor, however, this also means that I have the nightly task of coming up with something new and inspiring to be found within this calendar the next day. (here is a picture of it that I posted this time last year)

The "Advent/Solstice" Calendar

Juniper, now being the wise and savvy 4-year-old that she is, started asking questions about the calendar.
Juniper: "So, does this mean that Santa comes by every night to put something in it?"
Tara: "Hmmm... I don't think so, Juniper... I think Santa only makes his rounds on Christmas eve."
Juniper: "Well then who puts things in the pockets every night?"
Tara: "Ummm... I'm not entirely sure how to answer that question."
Juniper: (thinks about it for awhile) "I think it must be the solstice fairies. But I'll leave a note and ask them, just to make sure".

Here is the note...

... and a picture of what Juniper imagined the fairies might look like

And so there you have it. The magical beings that come out during the holidays are increasing faster than you can imagine. Besides the old standards, we've now got a Hallowe'en Fairy, and a host of magical solstice calendar beings. In any event, if I am going to spend the better part of December living up to the growing expectations bestowed upon these magical solstice entities, I figured I might as well make it the focus of the blog for the next few weeks, right?

DECEMBER 1: Lollipops. We only got the Calendar out on the night of Dec. 1st, so the fairies had to retroactively leave something. The kids didn't mind.

Yes, lollipops can make you THIS happy.

DECEMBER 2: The fairies left a note directing us to go on an adventure to find berry branches and other such things to make a solstice decoration for the door. Here are some shots from said adventure:

Our first berry branch! Juniper put Honey in her ring sling and took her along for the trip.

Taking a break in the woods

Juniper leads the way

The finished product!

DECEMBER 3: Juniper was left a note suggesting that she find some things to plant. This was not difficult, as a week ago she had found a seed in a seed pod that had fallen from a tree, and already wanted to plant that. We also have a few avocado trees that I sprouted from pits that were ready to get potted, so I thought this would be a fun no-brainer. Did you know, however, that potting soil is almost impossible to find this time of year? After a completely unsuccessful morning spent going from store to store, Linden and I found a mostly used bag in the garage, just in time for Juniper to get home from preschool. Phew!

Planting her tree seed

Potting one of the avocado trees. We ran out of soil AND pots at that point.

DECEMBER 4: Juniper had been pushing the "what are these things?" question, so I decided to try and answer it in as meaningful and magical a way as possible. What resulted was clearly an answer that was far too esoteric.

Not only did Juniper not really understand, she also wasn't thrilled with her challenge for the day. I had suggested she keep track of all the kind things she did throughout the day, and that maybe we'd write a note to the fairies, to tell them all about it. When I asked her at the end of her preschool morning, however, her answer was not quite what I expected.

Tara: "So Juniper, tell me all the nice things you did today!"

Juniper: "Well.... I was going to throw sand, and then I thought 'no! The fairies wouldn't want me to!' So then I didn't".

Tara: Oh. Ummm - anything else?"

Juniper: "("so-and-so") pushed me on the playground, and I didn't push them back.

Ah well.

DECEMBER 5: Today was the day where we were to get out the owls that we made last year (from a kit from our good friend Zsofi), to continue with the festive decorations, and to make some snowflakes to add to the decor. Juniper didn't stop there - she also wanted to make MORE owls. So we had a very crafty afternoon, all said and told.

Before we put the snowflakes up, Juniper wanted to play the game where she threw them all up in the air and pretended it was snowing. More than a couple got wrecked this way, but look! It really does look like it's snowing!

Here they are on the window

Juniper, making a new batch of owls. Linden actually joined in later on, and made a pretty awesome one himself!

The new and the old, all hanging up together! Up top is a branch we snagged from a Juniper tree on our berry branch escapades. This is also where we will hang our Holiday cards, if we get any (hint! hint!). And just fyi, I have a feeling that the fairies might be designating one day very soon as a card-making day, so if you want one and think we might not have your address, send me an email! Longest picture caption ever!

DECEMBER 6: This morning was a package of (organic) gummy bears. The fairies were going to leave a note exclaiming over the excitement that we would all be going to the WHOI Christmas party this afternoon, but Clark declared that that was way too lame, and that the kidsat least deserved a treat if that was all they were going to get. So there you have it. At least they were organic, right? So were the lollipops, by the way. Only the best quality sugar and dyes for our kids.

And what's been going on besides solstice calendars and the resulting shenanigans? A lot of knitting, for one ('tis the season, after all...)

Juniper, sporting her new hat and gloves

I make a pair of these for Clark every couple of years, so Juniper felt she needed ones as well. They are ridiculously cute on her.

I had originally made this for myself, but it ended up too small. So I made another one for me, which means, we now have (sort of) matching hats. I even fleece-lined them!