Anchor:  a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay: Hope was his only anchor.

When we work to become the author of own family life, we take on the authority to provide our spouse and children and ourselves stability.  An effective way to do this is through the use of rhythm.  If you have small children, it takes time to build a family rhythm that encompasses the year.  If you are homeschooling older children and also have younger children not ready for formal learning, the cycle of the year through the seasons and through your religious year becomes the number one tool you have for family unity, for family identity, for stability.

Somehow I completely missed doing a monthly anchor post for the month of November!  You can, however, glance back at this post about the silence and stillness of November the silence and stillness of November and also this post I just wrote about  Thanksgiving.

Gratitude is a major theme in the month of November, and here is a February 2012 post about  gratitude and a   Thanksgiving 2011 post about gratitude.

We are coming into the month of December, a month of anticipation and preparation in the Christian Calendar. This post talks  Advent from a Waldorf perspective.  If you are from another faith tradition and are blogging about this month, please leave a link to your blog below so my readers can find you!   I am Christian and therefore can only write from the perspective of our authentic Christian life, but so appreciate other perspectives.

One thing I am thinking strongly about is how we as a family make a very conscious effort to slow down, not speed up, this holiday season.  You can see my contemplation about that in this post about the  simple holiday season.  and this post which holds  answers to parents’ holiday questions.

My Orthodox friends have already begun their Nativity Fast.  We begin here with the first Sunday in Advent on November 30th.  The monthly points that are our anchor this month include:

(November 30th – First Sunday in Advent)

December 6 – St. Nicholas Day –please do see Christine Natale’s tremendous post here St. Nicholas Day and starting new holiday traditions  and  favorite stories for St. Nicholas

December 7 – Second Sunday in Advent

December 13 – Santa Lucia Day

December 14 – Third Sunday in Advent

December 21- Fourth Sunday in Advent

December 24- Eve of the Nativity

December 25 – Feast of the Nativity, and the first day of the Twelve Days of Christmas  – there are many back posts on the Twelve Days of Christmas if you search under “Family Life” and “festivals” or use the blog’s search engine.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, December 25- January 6th

Our traditions include walking an Advent Spiral, crafting and baking.  If you need gift ideas for this season, please see  last minute gifts to make  and more last minute gifts to make.  There are many wonderful ideas our readers submitted as well.

Making beautiful memories and fun this time of year,

Carrie