Advent

You can't grow up attending a Waldorf school and not love advent. The scent of beeswax and pine needles, apples turned into candle holders, visits from St. Nicholas, almond cookies and Christmas stories all made this time of year one of my favorites. But my mom gets props for the best part of advent: the advent ribbon. Every year, my mom hung up a thick red ribbon onto which were pinned 24 small presents, goodies like stickers, mini tea sets for my dollhouse, and chocolates. Working from the bottom I opened one present a day until Christmas morning, when the ribbon was tossed aside in favor of bigger, more exciting things happening under the Christmas tree.

Last year I started the advent ribbon tradition in our house for Ava, who sweetly and joyfully opened 1 present a day just as I remember doing. This year I decided to do a ribbon for Julian as well. For those of you with 2-year-old boys, warning bells might be going off in your heads right about now. Perhaps they were for me, too, but I decided to ignore them because I had too much glögg -- who knows.

In any event, I did a ribbon for both kids and this morning they ran over to their ribbons with happy faces. Ava opened her first present (some princess stickers) and all was good. Then Julian opened his present (a squeezable snake that sticks out its tongue). Then Julian wanted to open all the other presents. Then we said no, you open 1 a day. Then Julian grabbed at the presents and started screaming. Then we moved the entire ribbon. Then he tried climbing the bookshelf to get the ribbon while screaming "nej, nej, nej!!" (this is the extent of his Swedish, used only in times of crisis). Then Julian proceeded to have a temper tantrum for the next half hour and we had to force him into his clothes and snowsuit and out the door. So much for a peaceful beginning to advent. I think I need some glögg to get through 23 more mornings that include the advent ribbon.