Christmas :: A Daybook

I am listening to:  Another episode of Curious George.  We've vegging this morning after a dash to Mass, confession, and bagels.

 (I'll never stop being frustrated by the impossibility of getting a picture of a black dog, in case you couldn't tell what furry creature was laying on my legs as I vegged on the couch last night)

Outside my window: Cloudy and grey, rain is fore casted, 90% chance!  I'm shining the "joy" lights I added to our window box after a Christmas Eve dash to Target (I did not go for the lights, but for the paper products I forgot about until the day before the party I was to host!).

Thinking, thinking:  Christmas this year? Many many graces.  Abundant mercy.  I think I went to confession three times in the last week!! Honestly? It was so brutal.  My varicose veins are in a total flare up.  Physically, getting a family of 10 dressed up two days  in a row, preparing the food, cleaning the house (creating a manger scene in the basement), wrapping the presents and getting to Mass in time for my boys to serve on Christmas...just about put me and my husband under.  Thanks be to God for two things: 1) my husband's sense of humor and 2) the sacrament of confession.  I didn't handle every moment of this holiday with the grace I might have preferred to display.

The babe in the manger: The last night of wrapping (yes, Christmas Eve), I had a charlie horse in my back.  It was late.  We were home from the party and tomorrow was Christmas, which I was hosting.  I had failed an fallen so many times, and I SOOOO wanted to be ready (read, "perfect") for the coming of Jesus on Christmas.  I knew I wasn't perfect, spiritually or otherwise.  I wasn't going to be "ready" for Him to come, and He had already come: it was Christmas Eve!  Then, in my pain, it dawned on me: He came to SAVE.  Oh yes, a Savior is just what I needed to come!  I could pray for, and WELCOME a Savior.  Infant King, born to save!  Save me!!

What mercy.  What love.  Thank God for Christmas!!!

Thankful:  So, with the incredible help of my husband and children, we cleared out this house and polished and scrubbed and hung more lights and set up tables and chairs.  My Mom arrived with Christmas dinner in tow (well, the main course!) and another table.  She helped me put on table cloths and fill water glasses.  Tea lights were lit (they were the non-flame kind this year and I must add that I really like the glow of those lights...and the fact that the kids won't burn themselves!)

 A friend dropped off this hand-made Christmas ornament on Christmas Eve.  So sweet!

Christmas at my house: My beautiful sisters began to arrive, one with a 27 pound 8 month old, one 8 months pregnant, one with an angel costume on a hanger for her little pageant angel.  My house filled with even more children, one who began practicing her holiday tunes on her guitar.  My brother called from his monastery overseas.  The kitchen was all a-bustle.  Joy began to fill my weary little heart and I sat (yes, sat!!) down to rest a moment near my brother and new sister-in-law and my swollen ankles thanked me.

After dinner there was the pageant, and oh! The figgy pudding!!

Thank you, Aunt Ann!  Some people live pinterest-worthy lives.  My sister is one of them.  Good to have people like that in your life.  

 Then the ping-pong and foosball tournaments began.  My youngest sister taught my second son a "new word" (actually, he already knew it, but got a huge kick out of hearing her say it) as he beat my very competitive sister in a game of foosball.  There are rumors that there will be a rematch.

The candies came out, and people settled into couches.  Groups began to trickle out the door.  I waved from the couch, feet propped up under a blanket.

It had been so so brutal.  But now I knew it was all so so worth it!

I hope yours was a very Merry, grace-filled Christmas.

Plans for the week ahead:

Today (I'm finally hoping to post this today, a day after I started this post) we're celebrating a rather important anniversary!  And our special day just so happens to land on the Feast of the Holy Family this year!! We were married two days after Christmas, and the Sunday following Christmas is always the feast of the Holy Family.   It doesn't always land on this feast day, but when it does, our wedding anniversary seems to take on a very special cast.  The fact that this year, our milestone "15", lands on this feast of the Holy Family, is very special to me.  I have so much to be grateful for.  But that's a post of it's own.

No school this week!  My opportunity to focus on the deep-cleaning that didn't happen before Christmas and doesn't seem to happen when I'm teaching.  I'm capitalizing upon the fact that today marks the beginning of my SECOND trimester!! Time to nest!! No, not too early.  I beach like a whale on my couch the final trimester--now is the time to go crazy!  (Yes, I'm feeling better!! Not 100%, but waaayyyyyy better!)