Intrigued by a post in one of my new favorite blogs,
Shivanya Naturals , I ordered a book about "The Winter Solstice" and took it with me to Tahoe.
By now I had already learned that December 22 was supposed to be the shortest day of the year and therefore we had to celebrate our first CZ Solstice in Tahoe, on the day we arrived.
The location could not have been any more perfect ... right here, out in nowhere.
Peace and quiet surrounding us and within us the excitement of discovering a new ritual, a new way of celebrating this time of year and bringing with it a much deeper meaning of it all.
To build a fire was the first task and the Sierra House offered a nice fire place to do so.
We really were supposed to use the outdoor fire pit and build a fire with wood, gathered in the woods, added old feathers, berries, pine cones and whatever else the forrest has to offer during this bare time of the year.
But we had just arrived and darkness had come upon us before we could even unload the car.
Going around collecting wood and feathers was not going to happen.
So we took the next best thing we had, the fire place (in Milpitas it would have been the BBQ ;)
Next year we'll be better prepared and get more into the fire building and burning of offerings.
The Winter Solstice is a celebration of the end of a year , beginning on the shortest day of the year (around 12/22).
With the first sun-rays of the next day, after the Solstice begins, you welcome the new year, the light and warmth of the sun and all that comes with it and lives because of it.
Winter Solstice ends in early January (around the 8th).
These are actually the original 12 days of Christmas or Solstice and many rituals followed to assure that the next year would be fruitful, healthy and prosperous.
You leave the old year with burning fire, burning your offerings (to get closer to your god(s) and you let go.
You let go of whatever it is that made your heart heavy during the old year and by burning the fire you open your heart and soul to a new beginning, to forgiveness and inner peace, knowing that with the next sunlight a new and better year will start.
I found these instructions after we had celebrated our Solstice but next year we'll definitely make these.
It sounds like such a neat idea!
And so we did make our fire, offered our gifts of the woods (kindly collected, chopped down and neatly stacked in front of the door for us by the Sorenson's staff :)
With the next morning we celebrated the new beginning (I really wanted to make golden star crowns for the Ls to wear on that day but I just had run out of time ... next year for sure).
Solstice also is the beginning of the Winter Celebration so we gave the Ls their first Solstice present ever.
A box full with colors, paper, paint, needlework and much more to keep them occupied while staying at the cabin.
We all enjoyed the gifts of the Solstice and settled down to draw, craft and create.
It was so peaceful and calming. One of my most favorite moments at the cabin.
We read "The Lion in the Box" finally.
I have had this amazing book for years and tried to read it with L several times but we never finished it.
This year we did!
Pat read the whole book to us and at the high point of the story, when she opens her long awaited present Pat read "... and in it was ... (we were all sitting on pins and needles, biting our nails in suspense) ... Figgy Pudding!"
WHAT??? ... hahah ... he got us good :)
This is one of the best Christmas stories I have ever heard and the Ls loved every word of it and even learned a thing or two about kindness and sister hood.
The next day we made up for the lack of preparation on the 22nd.
We went out to gather wood, greens, bark and whatever else the Ls could find and created our first Winter Shrine.
We built a tee-pee out of small sticks, added some evergreen and bark and Father Winter (in our case a Playmobile Santa) in the middle, surrounded by all the animals of the woods.
I made a sun-candle holder out of the lid of my espresso can and almost cut my finger off, while doing so.
I guess we could count that as blood offering.
Better than slitting a bulls throat, like in earlier times.
... plus where would we have found a bull, how would we have captured it, got it into the cabin and then talk my vegetarian child into offering this poor beasts blood to the sun goddess ;)
This was the centerpiece of our holiday.
You could find the Ls all day passing by, playing with the animals, making sure they were all lined up and the candle was burning.
Secondly we needed a tree!
Sorenson's allows you to go up the hill and cut your own tree but I didn't like the idea of cutting a little tree just to display it for a few days in the cabin and then throwing it away.
Plus there was no room in the car for two boxes of ornaments, lights, a stand and ...
So we decided to build our own tree with "the offerings of the woods" again.
We found big branches, hauled them back to the cabin and Patrick built us our own Solstice/Christmas Tree.
I had brought a small string of lights and a few ornaments, enough to decorate the branches.
Et voila ... our Solstice Tree was born.
The best part of it is that we packed it up on the day we left Tahoe and took it with us.
It currently is awaiting to be rebuilt/reborn in our home here (pending finding a location for this big construction :)
It'll be a constant reminder of our wonderful time at Christmas and a nice way to display whatever art work the Ls create.
This too will become a new tradition for us.
I think next year we'll add some evergreen branches after we build the tree, since the one thing I missed about having a real tree was the fresh smell of pine.
Last we created this wonderful ice-sun-catcher.
I had seen a few posts about these and could not wait to make one of our own.
This completed our decorations and we were finally ready for Christmas.
We let the Ls have a small gift every day before the 24th, a puzzle or a game which really was the best idea ever.
In the big scheme of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day these small things would have never gotten as much attention.
This way the Ls really enjoyed putting their new puzzles together, testing out a new coloring instruction booklet or playing with the new Princess Tea Set Papa got for Lulu (definitely one of her favorite gifts!!!).
We had a tea party every day of the stay :)
Every day was a small celebration in itself and brought so much appreciation and happiness that the BIG events were so much less stressful, less high anticipation and less full of high expectations (what could top a Princess Tea Set anyways :)
Another new tradition that we'll be "implementing" from now on for all the years to come.
And then finally the day was here, December 24th, and we had all preparations going!
Cookies for Santa - check
Gluewein (hot, spiced wine) for Mama and Papa - check
Home-Made Reindeer Food - check
They equally placed it on four spots, to make sure all Reindeer would get their fair share.
A wonderful Christmas Eve meal (made by the Sorenson's chef himself) - check
Christmas Eve was every bit of perfect as I had dreamed about it!
I have this memory from when I was a little girl, walking into the living room, seeing the tree all lit up for the first time, in its light and shine and all the gifts underneath for the very first time.
I remember the smell of the room and the flickering of the candles.
I wanted the Ls to have the same experience, the same memories and the same appreciation for the tree itself and not just the goods underneath it.
And it worked ... perfectly!
When the Ls walked in I had all the candles lit in the room, the incense was burning, the fire was cracking, the tree shining in it's light, the pretty ornaments glittering in the dim light and "Es its ein Ross entsprungen" (my favorite german christmas song) was sounding through the room.
Both Ls were just kneeling in front of the tree, taking it all in and whispering to each other.
It was so beautiful that I wanted to linger in this moment forever, take a permanent image of it in my heart and store it there for all days to come.
It sounds corny I know, but I had this planned for so long and made sure that every detail was just the way I remembered it and somehow, I probably wanted to recreate this for myself as much as for them.
The rest of the evening was spent opening gifts to each other and from families.
The favorites were the home made items, for sure.
In early December we had drawn names and assigned Christmas buddies.
I had Pat and had made him a pair of
wooden skate ornaments out of two branches and a paper clip.
The Ls had gotten their home made gifts before we left, since Ls gift for Lulu was too big and fragile to bring.
Princess Lucy's Fantasy Castle turned out amazing and Lulu loved playing with her new Wooden Princesses.
L's Star Wars Wooden Figure set was not quite finished and we didn't want to drag a box of Acrylic Paints, brushes and such with us.
We decided to give her a little taste and promised to finish the set ASAP.
Master Obi Wan Kenobi was done, by the Artist Papa himself, and the rest of the team will follow shortly.
I had made a play mat out of some really cool galaxy fabric and the left-overs from Baby Ashelys's play mat for L, to complete the set.
And L had helped Lulu to make a frame out of popsicle sticks for me, with lots of glitter.
I just have to print a photo and add it (I'll post the completed version later).
I loved how the Ls sneaked off in their rooms to work on their top-secret projects.
How we sat at the kitchen table until the wee hours of the night to work on our top-secret projects and how proud we all were when our home made gifts were opened and LOVED so much.
Papa read us "The Night Before Christmas" in our Christmas Dream House,
... and soon "no creature was stirring, not even a mouse" ;)
Christmas Day was spent playing with our "Wedding Barbies" and the "Luminum Falcon" (Millennium Falcon).
And " Dreams of Sugar Plum Fairies" danced in our hands ... (3 lb. to be exact, Santa????)
We didn't leave the house (and our PJs ) until 3 pm Christmas Day.
We checked on the Reindeer food ...
... and we found hoof-prints and the food was all scattered around.
From the looks of it they did enjoy their snack ;)
We made it out to Kirkwood for a round of sledding and Ski fitting.
And Lulu made the perfect snow angel.
We had a VERY Merry Christmas indeed.
One full of laughter, love and joy!
And this completes the second post about our heavenly trip.
Tomorrow I'll post pictures and video of the Ls first ski lessons and how they did ...
Just picture my little Issie, all bundled up, with helmet and sunglasses going down the hill ... you know you'll have to see this one, right :)
