Advent Ribbon Craft & Cookie Tradition

So, starting November 30, there are 4 Sundays until the winter solstice, or the end of advent, this makes 22 days until Yule.

We created a special calendar with 25 markings so our calendar goes until Christmas Eve. The picture above is a collage that shows some different angles and close-ups.

6 stones for each season and each element mark the angel’s journey to the top of the star. The star is the 25th day. “Nothing” is the first day.

First are the stones of Spring, the Air Element and the Sanguine – we represented them with WHITE stones (moonstones)

Then come the six stones of Summer, the Fire Element and the Choleric – we represented them with RED stones (aventurine)

Next come the six stones of Autumn – the Earth Element, the Melancholic – we represented them with BROWN stones (tiger eye)

Last come the six stones of Winter – the Water Element, the Phlegmatic – we represented them with BLUE stones (soladite)

You can choose other colors or stones that remind you of that element or even other objects that remind you of that element – you do not need to use stones. Although the kids love the magic of the gems!

We will bake cookies each week using our 8-in-one cookie recipe (see the category “cooking” on this BLOG).

I’ve heard different numbers mentioned for cookies before – 13, 10, 12, whatever…find out what works for you and make some cookies each week 🙂 The recipe I mentioned above is great because you can make ONE dough and then refrigerate it and each week you just take out the dough, add a few different ingredients and you have different cookies each week – and they really taste different! My favorite are the peach-cardamom!

I attached the stones to the ribbon – each one inch apart – Sofi felted an angel to climb the stone ribbon. At the top is a star that Jesse sent me when I ordered something from her ETSY shop at http://www.earthmamahyde.etsy.com/

We will tell a story each day for each stone and each step in the angel’s journey. Sofi created the angel using on of The Waldorf Channel member tutorials.

The story covers all the same themes as the advent wreath.

The wreath’s circular shape represents eternity, for it has no beginning and no end. The evergreen was chosen as it symbolizes growth and everlasting life. Some say it’s origins were with the pagan “fire wheel” made from greens to symbolize life. Some people burned greens on the hillsides; others made great wheels set them afire and rolled them down the hills. We honor those origins by having our angel climb through the four seasons – the “wheel of the year”

The traditional meaning of the four candles on the wreath are as follows:

First Purple candle: represents hope.

Second Purple Candle: stands for love.

Third, pink candle: represents joy.

Fourth purple candle: is a symbol of peace

We will bake cookies each week using our 9-in-one cookie recipe (see end of this post)

I’ve heard different numbers mentioned for cookies before – 13, 10, 12, whatever…find out what works for you and make some cookies each week 🙂 The recipe above is great because you can make ONE dough and then refrigerate it and each week you just take out the dough, add a few different ingredients and you have different cookies each week – and they really taste different! My favorite are the peach-cardamom!

I attached the stones to the ribbon – each one inch apart – Sofi felted an angel to climb the stone ribbon. At the top is a star that Jesse sent me when I ordered something from her ETSY shop at http://www.earthmamahyde.etsy.com/

We will tell a story each day for each stone and each step in the angel’s journey. Sofi created the angel using on of The Waldorf Channel tutorials.

The story covers all the same themes as the advent wreath. You can download our story here on the Audio Download Page (Journey of Analise)

The wreath’s circular shape represents eternity, for it has no beginning and no end. The evergreen was chosen as it symbolizes growth and everlasting life. Some say it’s origins were with the pagan “fire wheel” made from greens to symbolize life. Some people burned greens on the hillsides; others made great wheels set them afire and rolled them down the hills. We honor those origins by having our angel climb through the four seasons – the “wheel of the year”

The traditional meaning of the four candles on the wreath are as follows:

First Purple candle: represents hope.
Second Purple Candle: stands for love.
Third, pink candle: represents joy.
Fourth purple candle: is a symbol of peace

This is my FAVORITE holiday cookie recipe. After you are done making the base dough there are instructions to make 8 different cookies and when you end it looks like you made 8 batches of cookies but you didn’t! I make these every year now and I don’t even bother with other kinds of cookies. Why make a thousand cookies over days and days if I can make one recipe and it LOOKS like I made thousands of cookies over days and days? This coming so soon after my “Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipe” will probably establish me as one of the laziest moms around…but really – I love to find recipes that are easy so my kids can help more and so I can have more time to do more things! And these cookies are so buttery and yummy! They are gourmet. Hint: the hardest part of this recipe is gathering all the ingredients. Make substitutions if you need to – don’t stress yourself! And I have a 9th idea…how about taking a bit of the white dough and spliting it in half, adding a bit of peppermint and red food coloring to one half and then twisting those into “candy canes” – see? Now you have NINE cookies! Here it is (I got this from a magazine 12 years ago…not sure what the copyright limit is on magazine articles and I can’t find it online so I apologize if I am stepping over any boundaries here…)

8-in-One Cookies

Basic Dough

4 sticks of butter (2 cups)
1 cup of light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 lg. Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Beat all except flour until fluffy
Gradually beat in flour
Take ½ of the dough out to make chocolate dough by adding ¼ cup cocoa and ½ tsp. Vanilla.

Divy the dough into 4 parts each and add the following to them:

CHOCOLATE DOUGH divided into four parts makes:
Chocolate chunk
Hugs and kisses
Chocolate-marshamllow thumb-prints
Chocolate-vanilla spirals

VANILLA DOUGH divided into four parts makes:
Oatmeal/peanut butter cookies
Jam Thumb-prints
Apricot-pecan cookies
Chocolate-vanilla spirals

Oatmeal-peanut butter
1 part Vanilla dough
½ cup oats
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup creamy peanut butter

Jam Thumb Prints
1 portion vanilla dough
32 almond slices
1/3 cup apricot or raspberry jam

Roll Dough into 8 inch log
Slice into 16 pieces
Roll pieces into balls
Thumb-print balls
Put a small dab of jam and an almond in the “print”
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees

Apricot-Pecan
1 portion vanilla dough
¼ tsp. Ground cardamom
8 small dried apricots, diced
¼ cup chopped pecans

Mix cardamom and apricots into the dough
Roll and slice as in the jam prints
Put balls on greased cookie sheet
Bake 12-14 minutes

Chocolate Chunk
1 portion chocolate dough
¼ cup vanilla chips
¼ cup sliced almonds

Mix and bake as in recipes above 10-12 minutes in flattened balls.

Hugs and Kisses
1 portion chocolate dough

Roll as in jam thumb-prints.
Instead of jam put a “hugs and kisses” Hershey’s Kiss (The white and black ones) in the middle before baking 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Marshamallow Thumb Prints
1 portion chocolate dough
small jar of marshamallow topping or small marshmallows

Roll Dough into 8 inch log
Slice into 16 pieces
Roll pieces into balls
Thumb-print balls
Put a small dab of marshmallow sauce or 2 small marshmallows in the print
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees

Chocolate-Vanilla Spirals
1 portion vanilla dough
1 portion chocolate dough

Roll out both doughs to approximately the same rectangular size.
Put the rectangles on top of each other and roll as if making cinnamon rolls
Slice into circlesBake on a tray for 10-12 minutes at 350