Radvent: a breather to get Started

Today I am planning on working with Princess Lasertron’s “how to get started” prompts to get my 2012 goals fleshed out. Identifying my mission to “begin to be the person you want to be today” is a daunting task, so these 6 tips will help me move it along.

Image re-blogged with permission from Princess Lasertron

For Radvent 5 on Drawing I’ll direct you to my drawing class experience. Art Journaling is something I am intrigued by but I haven’t delved into it yet. My journals are still full of words rather than pictures.

Since I’ll be mulling a bit today, here are a few pics of this year’s Christmas coziness at my home (I did start early on decorating!).

My Willow Tree Nativity Scene by Susan Lordi grew as a Christmas present over several years, and this season the Wise Men round it out. 🙂

My friend made the scribble heart which I embellished with fake rubies from mom’s Goose Fest Christmas table last year. The Texas Snowman (as I call him) came from a garage sale in Phoenix. The poinsettia runner is from a German Gift store in Old Town Spring (my sister-in-law purchased a similar one at the time), along with the cute little angel serving sweets. The blue angel comes from my aunt in Germany. Both were made “im Erzgebirge” famous for wood cuttings.

The Weihnachtspyramide came from Germany too via mom.

You’ll remember the wire ball from my challenging project. I purchased the shimmery mosaic balls and the mirror mosaic tree on post-christmas sale from Target. The wooden reading angel was 75 percent off at Pier1 a few years back. Like the scribble heart, the angel moves around the house year-round.

The red paper star garland is from Ten Thousand Villages, I made the silver one from a beading kit a few years back (I can’t find that kit anymore), and my sister made the sequin ball in the middle for me.

The knitted santa has been in my family for years. I believe a babysitter (who taught me how to knit a pink doll’s sweater once) may have made it for us. It used to have ribbon at its feet to pin greeting cards on.

My tree is a small rosemary tree. I was going to decorate it with small snowflakes, but I don’t want the glitter to get into my food. 🙂 I usually have a wreath for the pine-ey scent, but this year a candle will do.

I like how my advent  surroundings join memories of my whole life together. Santa represents my childhood in the Netherlands (near Alphen), the German decorations remind me of teenage-hood (near Wiesbaden), a snowman representing my time in the South (Houston and Phoenix), and new items from my new life and new friends in the Midwest. It keeps home with me even when I have celebrated on my own, and is a nice way to reflect on how far I’ve come since my early years (not just geographically, obviously). Hey, as I look at everything now it is even helping me identify “me” in keeping with our Radvent challenge!

Holiday traditions are a good way to re-set for the coming year and get ready to implement those intentions Princess Lasertron encourages us to get started on today.

What is your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate its arrival?