Tonight we have a DIY wreath from Simone, my very first mom friend in South Bend. Simone is a lovely lady from Austria who married Scott, a man from California, who is now studying to obtain his doctorate in Theology here at ND. They have an adorable two year old boy, Caleb, (who is so nice to Baby Ryan) and a wee one on the way! Simone was talented enough to make her own beautiful wreath. Impressive! And I love how enthusiastic Caleb is about these budding Advent traditions.
"This year I decided to make our very own wreath and I enjoyed the process immensely. I purchased a styrofoam ring and floral wire at a craft store and cut some branches off our neighbor's pine tree (of course, I only cut the branches that hung over our property). One evening after Caleb went to sleep, I started my little project and the fragrance of the pine needles soon filled the room with Advent smells. I had to use a lot of branches and needed to get more in the middle, but the wreath is now very full and bushy. It is traditional in Austria to put the candles on the wreath and I was determined to somehow attach them there, but this was quite the challenge. In the end, I wrapped a golden cord around four tea candle holders to hold them in place on the wreath. On these candle holders I then carefully placed the actual candles (they are too big for the holders so they just rest on them). It is all a bit shaky (and crooked as you can see in the pictures), but the candles hold up until now. =) A couple of golden pine cones then gave our wreath the last finishing touches.
Last Sunday evening we blessed the wreath, brought Scott's guitar and sang the traditional Austrian song for lighting each candle ("Wir sagen euch an"), which was followed by several others. We hope to light the candle every night this Advent and at least sing one song. Caleb gets very excited when it's time to sing, and performs his task of blowing out the candle like a professional (he has had a lot of practice, since he blows out the candle after our night prayer every day). It is beautiful to see how enthralled little children can be and I take great pleasure in thinking that we are creating his special childhood memories just by making a simple wreath, singing a few songs and finishing with him blowing out the candle. "
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The wreath turned out so well, and it is wonderful to see memories in the making! I couldn't agree more about how beautiful it is to see how enthralled little ones are, and I can't wait for Ryan to be as excited as your sweet Caleb is. Thank you, Simone!
P.S. I wanted to hear the song so I found this video of "Wir sagen euch an" on YouTube. If I were the girl in the video of would have been sooo nervous!
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Please send in your advent wreaths! For Advent, I will be featuring Advent wreaths from my readers on the blog. If you would like to submit yours, please send a photo (or photos!) and a little bit about your family's Advent traditions to cedarsandtinyflowers {at} gmail.com. I hope to post one every day through Advent in addition to my regular posts. Can't wait to read about your wreaths!
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