We celebrated the winter solstice yesterday, which was somewhat unplanned, but very enjoyable. I photographed our activities throughout the day, and although they are rather ordinary and things we do almost everyday (seeing the sunrise, crafting, hiking), there was an added sense of wonder with conscientiously thinking about the shortest day of the year (or the longest night, depending on how you wish to think of it). I got the kids involved in noticing the light and talking about the number of daylight hours, and they were on board with thinking of the solstice as Solstice, a special day in the year. And of course, they always enjoy projects in the studio and hiking anywhere.
I cut up some grapes and pineapple to put in the dehydrator for snacking on later– pineapple and dried grapes are some of our favorite dehydrated foods! We've decided to call them dried grapes rather than raisins, because home-dried dried grapes are totally different than store-bought raisins in taste, texture, lack-of-stickiness, and overall appeal to us. They're a wonderful mid-winter snack, and the low solstice light coming in through the kitchen window was warming and highlighted the fruit.
I did a couple of prep paintings for some more Kumomi drawings.
And then she wanted to get involved– because who doesn't like painting and blowing through a straw to make crazy designs?
And if she's involved in something fun, he has to be, too! We had a few enlightening conversations on what it means to "pass out" and that it's important to stop blowing on the paint if you felt light headed...!
We also worked on a tree garland to hang in the house. Both kids really got into all of it, from choosing buttons to hot glue onto each tree, to stitching with floss on the trees. They were pretending that this sort of stitching was helping them practice for when they were ready to be doctors. I say they need to keep practicing!
We hiked as the sun was going down, which meant the beautiful warm day quickly got cold. But we were celebrating the light, noticing the angles of the winter rays, and I know I was thinking about gratitude for health, beauty, sunlight and family.
It doesn't get much better than this!
Since we were out with the intention of seeing Solstice, we noticed the environment around us in a different light. Beautiful.
We came home and had a small Solstice fire in the back yard, which is still under a bit of snow. We had seafood chowder for dinner by candle light, hoping for more snow this week, and appreciating the darkness.
Happy Solstice!
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