A Winter Solstice Walk.

 On Tuesday evening we joined a few friends to celebrate the Winter Solstice.  I needed to look that up on the internet (Geography was not my favourite subject at school!) One site says it is the start of Winter!  Are they serious?!  Is it only just the start?!  I think I prefer the other explanation I found: the longest night and shortest day.  Which means the days are getting longer......and to me that sounds like we're heading towards summer :-)  Ok, it's a bit of a long shot, but a girl can dream right?!

Anyway, back to our celebration....

We made lanterns............. by making colourful pages covered in crayon patterns,

and then we rubbed artist's turpentine all over the crayon, which made it smudge like this....

after which we coated the back of our page with sunflower oil, which makes it look translucent when a candle is placed inside the lantern.

 And after a bit of cutting and gluing, wire bending and sand filling we had these beautiful lanterns.  (Sorry I whizzed through that process without any pictures....it was a very hands-on experience for us moms!)

Our creative hostess then told the children a story and taught them a song, which they all sang as they walked out the door to find their lanterns waiting for them, lit, inside the spiral.

After they each received their lantern it was time to go on our walk, welcoming the Winter season in....or  the start to the days becoming longer, if you prefer to look at it that way ;-)

Appropriately walking into the sun.....

but, by the end of our walk, when the sun had set, we had a beautiful sight for all the neighbours to see as we walked by.

And to end it off: warm winter soup, hot chocolate and stories to listen to.  A wonderful way to make winter a more exciting event for those of us who don't enjoy this cold season we're apparently just beginning!