From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Blackcats

At school we were encouraged to be Advent Angels which meant doing a nice thing every day for our family.  Simple things like making mum a cup of tea, laying the table, drying up etc.  I remember feeling very helpful by ironing the tea towels and hankies.  In hindsight I expect it was more nerve wracking for my mum than actually being much help but I enjoyed the task.
Perhaps LG might like to do something similar for their DP and DM over the Advent season?

Greying_Pilgrim

👋 to beanie - thanks love.

Blackcats - that sounds mucho more preferable to me than Elfontheshelf nonsense.  I'm trying to incorporate 'doing' into LG's advent more as they get older - I don't think I'm there yet, but it's definitely my intention.  Some of it is 'festive' in nature, but no reason why there can't be the odd practical thing too.  

I have just put our advent 'calendar' up - LG was excited to see it.  Which fills me with joy, as it's homemade, and whilst there will be a smattering of chocolate each day, it's not just about the chocolate.  It is a little bit of continuity each year as it's reuseable.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Yuck weather-wise with us, but I know that there are others elsewhere who will be facing much worse weather conditions, so stay safe!  Meteorological first day of winter today - brrrr!

I'm nearly caught up clothes washing wise, although as you know - the carousel is constantly turning 🙄The advent choccy's have been munched.  I've railed back in recent years, and now 1 small chocolate is all that is required - although sometimes treats differ.  

Right, I need to prep snap, and make sure everyone knows to grab clothing items off the airer.  

I can't think of anything else specifically MSE at the mo, so I'll push orf.  Ta for popping by.

Greying X

Watty1

I just remembered something from a couple of years ago.  I found the Book of Luke on Amazon as a very readable version, and started to read it . Just a little during advent.  I'm going to do it again this year.  Not because I am especially religious but as a way to connect with the meaning of the season.    I'm wondering if that could be an activity for advent?  Along with celebrating the solstice?  And finding holly.   So connections with the season rather than the busy commercialisation.   As a child I had a book that gave the meaning of each of the things we do at this time and it was really special.   It shaped how I thought about the season and still does.  (Yule logs, holly wreaths, mummers plays and so on).

My ramblings are more for me really   I need to connect with why rather than my house overwhelmed with the VNM festive decorations. (He loves them and his pleasure in having them up is why I have them)

Greying_Pilgrim

Watty - feel free to post.  I wasn't so aware of the Mummers plays, even growing up in a rural area, but how I came to know about them was from a knitting utoober (are you surprised???) who is also a morris dancer, and she references them in her vlogmas, shows excerpts from practices etc.  She also shows an excerpt from the 'singing in the pub' - which is very loud, very raucous, (and isn't for everyone), but illustrates that 'togetherness' and the power of doing something in/as a, group.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Watty - has, as ever, made me think and I knew that whilst we don't have any books in the house that are advent/solstice/pagan/yule traditions specific as such, LG does have a couple of nature books that cover winter in a general way with snippets of info/poems/short stories etc.  So I will put that to good use 😉 PLUS, in digging around the bookshelf HOW could I forget???? "The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits"??  That has been an advent tradition for DH to read a chapter (they are only short) each day of Advent to LG since they were an ickle pickle!  So THAT has been dug out and put - pride of place - near the advent calendar.  How could I have forgotten something so lovely, and non commercial!  

YAY! to inexpensive traditional stuff that owes little or nothing to commercialism and only requires a small amount of time and focus 😁

Greying X

Watty1

ohh singing together in a loud raucous style  -  I remember that from pubs in rural Ireland.  I wanted to move to rural Ireland once on the basis property was cheap, I could get a couple of wolf hounds and go to the pub for a sing song.  (OK, I was very young LOL).  There is something companionable about that.  Particularly on a dark cold night.

EssexHebridean

I confess I'm quite envious of LG's christmas school situation - Id have LOVED for mine to be free of the religious stuff as even as a child I was already well aware of the fact that I "didn't believe a word of it"! We did at least have school plays that although there was always a back-note of the religious side weren't "nativity plays" in the usual sense - although I do remember we did a version of this story one year when I was probably about 9...https://christmasfm.com/the-story-of-the-babushka/ - but a lot of other stuff was very much around "the birth of the baby Jesus" with the assumption that we all believed in that aspect...  In spite of this though i DO love a carol concert - for the music and the singing, rathe than the words of the songs, IYSWIM.

Greying_Pilgrim

It isn't even the 'religious' thing that they don't do though EH.  I don't think kids do 'nativity' past Reception class - in any school - these days.  And LG's school isn't religion affiliated, so I don't have a beef with the kids not having it all rammed down their throat.  But they don't seem to have any aspect of Christmas to just 'enjoy'.  It is just what can be monetised.  

The only Christmas crafts are the kids pictures printed onto tshirts/mugs/placemats to be sold at a vastly inflated price to parents/grandparents.  There are no crafts involving loo roll innards, cotton wool or any amount of PVA glue and glitter.  There are seemingly zero songs (don't have to be religious), secular Christmas songs - a rousing rendition of Rudolph the red nose reindeer or 'o Christmas tree'.  The kids don't know the words to any of the songs.  

The focus doesn't have to be on the religious, but there is little 'seasonality' either. No parties.  The Christmas dinner is being served, but hasn't (apparently) got a very good reputation.  There isn't even any kind of nod to Santa (which isn't everyone's cup of tea).  There's little community engagement, the kids don't do anything/collect anything for others who might be less well off than themselves.  

OK, so when i was at school, there was the religious aspect because we were CofE aided.  I would not have wished the vicar who was incumbent on the parish, on anyone - let alone a child.  They were horrid, very old skool and far from virtuous, NOT practising what they preached - at length.  But i remember our snowman decorations and our paper chains decorating the class room, and I remember we learnt Christmas songs and carols, and had a whole school party with presents and a visit from 'santa' who we all assumed would come into school via the Head Teacher's garden for some reason 🤔 We did do the church service/nativity, because of the link to the church, but it wasn't a Shakesperian production, and had it's bloopers and funny moments 🤭

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Well, I ended up cheating for tea.  LG was very good and did their advent activity of signing the Christmas cards (DH is doing his bit now), and putting the stamps on the envelopes for me.  We then had to do a homework activity - which should have been 5 or 10 minutes......... 🙄

Anyway, I knew I needed to do something for tea that wouldn't make too much washing up, so that DH would have time to sign the cards (there really isn't that many, and he's just got to sign his name).  So I used some of the burgers bought yesterday, some YS'd baps and made some wedges from the maris piper potatoes.  Not a normal Monday night tea, but we've had something to eat and there wasn't too much washing up.  

No money spent today.  

Ta for popping by.  Greying X