The Deliberate Owl

This year, I made an Advent wreath.

As Catholic as Randy is, this is actually our first year having an Advent wreath! We meant to have one in previous years, but for one reason or another, it just never materialized. This year, it was finally time.

Our goal is to add a couple new family traditions every year. As Jessica Gordon of Shower of Roseshas said, you can start small with your family traditions. Add a new tradition every year. After a while, they add up.

Unfortunately, we didn't start early enough to order nice purple and pink beeswax candles. Cue a trip to the dollar store.

I found four tall, skinny, white candles in glass jars. These, plus a glass serving plate from the thrift store, were the base.

I wrapped each candle in ribbon (leftover from making a ribbon flower bouquet for my wedding). Tacky glue worked nicely as an adhesive.

The kids helped me collect pine cones of varying sizes and shapes at a local park. I cured them in the toaster oven.

For the wreath itself, we trimmed some small branches off the evergreens in our backyard. (They needed to be pruned anyway.)

We added the pine cones and sparkly red and gold ribbon from the thrift store.

Here's the result:

I like the natural look of the greenery. For next year, I'll keep the ribbon and pine cones so we can use them again. We may upgrade to nicer candles—as much fun as ribbon is, perhaps we will find some that are already the right color.