Happy Solstice!

I’m staying up late and listening to my old dog snore at my feet to get posting about the day. It was great right from the start. Lily and Leif added the last piece to our countdown calendar and found a clue in the pocket along with the sun. This clue lead the kids around the house looking in books, behind pictures and climbing high to find the next clues. The treasure hunt ended with separate clues to find a gift of Schleich toys. A Moose daddy and baby for Leif and a Grizzly mama and baby for Lily.

We don’t normally do gifts at this time of year but Lily had been expressing a strong interest for presents to open and I tried to find a way to make it work for everyone, including me and my not wanting to have a commercialised type of holiday. Two days before Solstice, I set up a different treasure hunt leading to a gift for the kids to share, a portable soft glow night light and two days before that was another treasure hunt leading to a family gift, the boardgame Qwarkle.

While eating breakfast we talked about all the things we were wanting to remember about the last year. We wrote them out on post it notes and stuck them to the wall next to Leify’s cockatiel pictures.

Some of our memories included:

• My Nana passed away this year. While this isn’t a happy memory, it’s the most notable memory I have from the last year. I love her and miss her. I’m very lucky to have had the chance to visit her many times in the last couple years.
• Rivers Day on Wave Bomber!
• Launching the barge in Oona River!
• Yoga.
• Running for clean energy.
• Smoothie mania.
• Music Festival fun.
• CLAW weekend.
• Getting mama up on a ride at a travelling fair.
• Time spent at the cabin with family and friends.
• Solar panel workshop.
• Officially standing up to dirty oil!
• Island adventures on Kitson, Rachaels and a weekend on Lucy Island.
• The Sacred Headwaters are protected from oil and gas development. Not to work on keeping tankers out of our waters and pipelines off our land…

It was a fantastic blue sky day today! After a few weeks of gloomy weather, it was well received. We went out to Oliver Lake again this year for a bonfire lunch with turkey hot dogs and smores with home made marshmallows. (Last year) It was a lot colder out than I’d expected but really appreciated the fresh chilled air. The lake was frozen over but not enough to chance walking on.

When we came home I was eager to warm up with some tea but the kids chose to stay out and play on the sled slide we made earlier in the week. It’s way cool, especially since it’s had a chance to firm up and get more slippery with use. It has an elevated start and goes straight downhill towards the street but turns sharply with a tall bank and heads down towards the cul de sac. This slide has been popular with all the kids in the neighbourhood.

While I finished making Daal for supper, the kids and Cam made the dough for Wish Bread which we put together after supper. This is my favourite part of this holiday. I love when we sit together talking about all our hopes and wishes for the coming year. Very soon I’ll have some big news to share about about my own hopes for the coming year. ;)