This week in our Monday morning circle, Ida lit the first candle for our Advent wreath. Then we walked through the advent spiral and placed lit candles on the evergreen boughs. In the afternoon, we practiced our bell songs for the JSR Christmas party.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, we worked in our workshops. In the afternoons, we broke into our reading, writing, painting, novel and singing groups.

Tuesday afternoon, some of the companions went to Waldorf high school to thank everybody for taking part in the play. Then, we sang some Christmas songs.

Tuesday evening, our companions, parents and friends came to the JSR Christmas party. The bell choir performed Christmas carols: ‘Angels We Have Heard on High,’ ‘Joy to the World,’ ‘Silent Night.’ Stephen C. sang ‘Masters in the Hall’ and everybody joined in. After that Beverly, Mark and Yvonne sang and performed Christmas songs. Then John Macdonald played the bagpipes and entertained us with his version of ‘We Will Rock You.’ Everybody sang along.

This week in our Thursday morning college, Patricia taught us about Buddism. We learned that Buddism started about 500 BC. Then Patricia read to us a story about a young boy named Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism. We learned that Siddhartha was the son of a Queen in India who was very rich. When he was old enough and had questions about the world outside the palace, he went out and saw many different people – some who were happy and some who were not so happy. When he got back home to his own village, he thought about all of the people that he met. After he met a holy man, he decided to become a monk. He did not wear rich clothing instead he wore poor peoples’ clothes. Next week we will learn more about Siddhartha and Buddhism.

After a short break we practiced our Christmas songs on the bells.