Winter Solstice

On the first day of Winter (the last day of my mom's life 15 years ago) we have been celebrating the shortest day of the year with a "winter spiral". We create a spiral (used to be outside- too cold up here!) and lay our presents to each other around the spiral. Each person is to choose a song to sing while carrying a candle to the spiral center. On the return from the center, the person singing is to choose a gift to open, replace it with the candle (in a mug for safety) and exit the circle. He or she then picks out the next singer from the names in a stocking. We have really enjoyed this tradition of ours. This year, Roman and Daddy made us all laugh by skipping a Christmas song and dancing to the youtube fame song of the wedding party dancing down the aisle- that was on The Office. Sillyness prevailed this winter solstice even though it was interupped and restarted because of a friend's car trouble. Everyone laughed, sang and had a ball. Not exactly the solemn traditional winter spiral a la Steiner but we spin by our own current!