Merry Mabon!

I love this holiday, but I can't pinpoint why exactly. It's a combination of the lovely autumnal elements coming together, and the parting of summer and the appreciation of the harvest and our good fortune to have food on our table. Tim & I agreed that we've been really slacking about observing the holidays as a family & just in general, we haven't been keeping up with it. So, I daresay that we are attempting to get back on track with Mabon. I feel encouraged after today's activities.

It was pretty cloudy and cold here most of the day so I didn't get the boys outside as I had planned, but we had fun playing inside and they both helped me do some cleaning in the kitchen ~ I don't know how or why this happened, I'm just enjoying the fact that it occured at all.

When Tim got home we all threw on an extra layer or two (it is fall in Maine after all) and went down to Pierce Island in Portsmouth. There's a great playground there right near the water that we like to visit but the draw tonight was the Fairy Houses. Each year on the weekend before the equinox (sometimes on it) people build elaborate Fairy Houses in this area and you can pay to go on a tour of them. We drove through it yesterday but the parking was ridiculous so we gave up. I thought we had missed them and then thanks to our homsechooling group I got an email today saying that a lot of the houses that people made, especially those made by kids, are still up and you can see them whenever you want. So we drove down and took a look. Ben brought apple slices to leave for the fairies at their homes. He was really into it and so full of praise for every house we saw, and we saw a lot! I'll post pics of it tomorrow or possibly later tonight if Nate falls asleep soon enough. I really want you all to be able to see what we did - it's just beautiful!

We came home and had our traditional Mabon dinner which is just a roasted chicken with root vegetables, some acorn squash and cornbread. The boys feasted mainly on applesauce, raisins and cornbread. At the end of dinner the boys each got to blow out one of the red dinner candles which was very special and important to them. After dinner we finished decorating our altar and lit the candles on it, so as I sit here writing to you all I'm enjoying the lovely glow of the orange, red and yellow candles near me. I really appreciate how this holiday inspires me to observe the many blessings in our lives. It's certainly a blessed Mabon for us. I hope that it is for you and yours too!