Kerzenziehen

 

Last week the kids & I spent every day making candles. It's a Swiss tradition which takes place a week or two before Advent starts (so everyone can make their handmade Advent candles). First, we all picked our wick width, then decided how long we wanted our candles to be. This year, Isadora no longer required my full attention & help, so I made a few candles as well. It's a painstakingly slow process. Everyone except Alice definitely got bored after about 10 minutes, but they found other ways (as seen above; hiding out under the candle cooling racks) to entertain themselves. I showed Karla the candles I made when she was here this weekend and she couldn't believe we started from scratch on them. It would be boring just explaining the process; the dipping, then waiting, dipping, then waiting. Add to it that you are surrounded by throngs of youths wielding hot wax while speaking SwissGerman in a stuffy community center-type room that smells of wax. And somehow, I still loved it.