Counting the Days!

It is the first Sunday in Advent and our tabletop Advent Garden is ready. The children have been out today so they will come home and find the table ready for them. Here is a sequesnce of pictures to show how I put the scene together.
First I cover our little corner table with burlap and secure in place with some larger stones. I also put up a dark blue wool cloth in the background. In the back under the burlap there is a small corner shelf that give a place for other visitors to stand (like St. Nichoals in a few days!).
Next I lay out a path of stars that have been cut from double sided card (gold/silver). There is one star for each day.Next I line the star path with snip of evergreen and decorate with smaller stones, shells, dried flowers. Mother Mary waits at the beginning of the path and the empty manger waits in the middle.
Lastly I use safety pins to attach three woolly angels in the dark night sky. The wings are fanned out a bit and stick nicely to the wool fabric.
Once Mother Mary steps onto a star it turns to gold and the next night the star she leaves will get a tea light candle to be lit on each subsequent night. I try to do this each evening and light the table during our family bedtime story.I have these smaller yellow stars that the children can place in the night sky for good deeds or small sacrifices. The glitter on them sticks to the wool fabric with just a little rubbing.

This is just one of our treasured Advent traditions - the idea is an adaptation of the larger Advent spiral described in All Year Round.