All Creation Waits

We've done lots of different kinds of Advent Calendars over the years:

Mary's Path of Stars from All Year Round

a pocket Advent calendar with 24 white crocheted snowflake ornaments, and we hang one on the tree each day

a wrapped Advent calendar where I wrap 24 Christmas/Winter picture books and put them in a basket, and we unwrap and read one each night

And, of course, we have some of the style I had when I was a little girl, which is a paper Advent calendar with its little windows to open. Years ago for my girls I got the book Christmas Roses: Legends for Advent by Selma Lagerlof, and we have the paper Advent calendar that goes along with it.

In 2019, my friend and fellow Handwork teacher, Barbara Albert, recommended Gayle Boss's book All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings. I was so glad she did. I love this book! Because it has so much Nature Study-type information in it, I thought it would be best for 2nd grade, so I was planning on waiting and doing it with Zac at that time.

Then, in 2020, I was talking with my friend Julie about All Creation Waits and she gave me the best idea. She said that her children were gifted a copy of this book from a grandmother along with an enormous box of ornaments, one for each animal in the book. The grandmother had spent a lot of time and money curating this wonderful collection of ornaments. What an extraordinary gift! I love the idea of reading a chapter each night and adding that animal to the tree. I have never slowly decorated our Christmas tree throughout the month of December, and I think it would be so joyful.

So now my current plan is to inventory our collection of animal ornaments when we take down the tree and put them all away, and see what animals I have. For any that I don't, I can work on needle felting them during the course of 2022. When December comes, we will be ready to read the book and marvel at each of these wonderful creatures and how it adapts to the cold and darkness, waiting patiently for the warmth and light to return.

Here is the list:

Day 1 - Painted Turtle - from Etsy shop ForageWorkshop

Day 2 - Muskrat

Day 3 - Black Bear - from Etsy shop Luckydogstudio

Day 4 - Chickadee

Day 5 - Whitetail Deer

Day 6 - Honey Bee

Day 7 - Chipmunk - from Etsy shop LeaAlanHandcrafted

Day 8 - Cottontail

Day 9 - Common Loon - from Amazon

Day 10 - Wood Frog - from Zazzle

Day 11 - Raccoon - from Etsy shop OrnamentallyYouEtsy

Day 12 - Little Brown Bat - from Touchstone Pottery

Day 13 - Opossum

Day 14 - Wild Turkey - from Etsy shop Ornaments4Orphans

Day 15 - Common Garter Snake

Day 16 - Woodchuck - from Etsy shop SweetLibertyBelle

Day 17 - Striped Skunk

Day 18 - Porcupine - from Amazon

Day 19 - Common Eastern Firefly - from Etsy shop ShainaMichael

Day 20 - Meadow Vole

Day 21 - Eastern Fox Squirrel - from Etsy shop MartaDalloul

Day 22 - Red Fox

Day 23 - Northern Cardinal

Day 24 - Lake Trout - from Etsy shop EmpirePewter
this is a pin but I can easily pin it to something to make it an ornament... and I was so glad to finally find a lake trout!!!

It would be really nice to get 24 matching white gift boxes to store them in.

5 inches x 5 inches x 3.5 inches

If you've used this book with your family, I'd love for you to share your child's favorite of these stories, or how you have done more to learn about or celebrate the animals. Merry Christmas, everyone!

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