"As the children walk the spiral, one can truly get a sense of the incredible loving light each individual brings into our world." - K's teacher.
Today was K's Spiral of Lights at school. This is truly one of my favorite festivals of the year. It's so simple and pure and filled with such reverence. There is just nothing else like it. We enter a room that is pitch black minus one candle in the very center of an evergreen spiral. A harp is beautifully played as the children walk the spiral. Each child is given an apple with a candle in it and will walk to the center to light it. Then he or she will find a star on which to place his/her particular light. As each child walks the spiral the path is illuminated more and more. If you are unfamiliar with the festival you can learn a bit more here.
This year's spiral was quite a bit different than the one from last year for me. The meaning and beauty of it all was still the same but Kevin wasn't able to attend and I had a cranky teething baby doing gymnastics in my lap during the whole thing. You've seen this/been there before, right? The baby who's poor gums hurt so much that he wants to nurse for comfort but then doesn't really want to nurse so he stops, sits up, and then arches his back and cries to nurse again. This went on pretty much the whole half hour we were in there. That explains the one and only (blurry) photo I got of K as she lit her candle.
Here she is last year. Yep, she's wearing the same dress and everything. I think it became a tradition for her.

May the beauty of this season be with you always!
P.S - I am so late posting this but if you are in the area please consider helping out Share Your Warmth. We are knitting and crocheting warm, natural fiber outerwear to warm the hearts and bodies of our neighbors in need.
Details can be found here or on their Facebook page.

boatbaby2 85p · 695 weeks ago
FrontierDreams 111p · 695 weeks ago
Megan Ayala · 695 weeks ago
I was really looking forward to doing our advent sprial this year, but our birthday box (girls bdays are the week of Xmas, so we keep everything together) got lost in our recent move... so although I have the spiral, I have no candles! Next year.. but I'm living vicariously through you on that, hah.
FrontierDreams 111p · 695 weeks ago
I have the camera set to apertaure priority mode and use a tripod. I tend to just play around with the ISO and aperature until it seems right. I believe those were taken with it set a 1.8 (50mm lens) at an ISO of 640. The blurry spiral photo was taken on auto because I was doubtful of myself... I am wishing I just kept it set to manual.
Megan Ayala · 695 weeks ago
Aimee · 695 weeks ago
FrontierDreams 111p · 695 weeks ago
Chrissy · 695 weeks ago
FrontierDreams 111p · 695 weeks ago
jumbleberryjam 58p · 695 weeks ago