This Season" ~ Writers Island

DECEMBER 17, 2007

 **[Leikur og List](http://moaromigboyles.blogspot.com/)**
One of my first memories of this season as a child was putting out cookies and milk for Santa Claus before I went to sleep on Christmas Eve. I could not believe when I awoke the next morning that I could only find crumbs on the plate and an empty glass of milk beside it! The story of Santa Claus had to be true!!! For many years this activity sparked wonder in me, fired my imagination, and gave me a sense of the greater mystery to be found in the unseen world around me...
All these years later... I find this same wonder, imagination, and mystery when I discover something new that adds to my deepening of all that this time of the year holds...
For the past five days, since December 12th, I've been visiting the blog of my artist friend Mo'a Boyles... There I've been learning about Mo'a's Icelandic homeland tradition of the journey of the thirteen _"Jolasveinar."_ Each day one Jolasveinar, also known as Yule Goblins, Christmas Men, Christmas Elves or
Christmas Lads comes down from the mountain until Christmas day... Mo'a has felted each figure and gives a little story about the particular characteristics and antics that appear with each one.
What once was a scary story, is now a benevolent one, and children leave a wooden shoe out on the window sill each night for each _Jolasveinar_ to leave a gift, or a potato, depending on whether they've been "naughty or nice!"
I find myself each day, hardly being able to wait to click on Mo'a's blog to see who has arrived. As when I was a child, my imagination dances with delight at the wonder and mystery Mo'a has created for us to enjoy.
To see these precious _Jolasveinar_,
and learn more of their story,
please visit Mo'a's blog at:

© This Season" ~ [Writers Island](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a0ca0df914e6beb5f43d271/5b6e1f401c8655a69cf9259c/5b6e249e1c8655a69cf9da34/1533944990057/writers-link-this-season?format=original)
Photo: I don't have a pair of wooden shoes...[ ](http://lealabyrinth.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/17/writersislandbadge1thumbnail.jpg)
only my plastic garden clogs... do you think this might be why I got potatoes ???