The Week Before Christmas::A Daybook

(I started this a few days back...ignore time references)

Listening to: Chattering little girls in the schoolroom.  I love that they've started to play in our back room now that it's far too cold to play on the picnic tables outdoors.  The neighbors bring over tupperware full of Lego Friends.  I have been eavesdropping on their hopes for Christmas, and I'm a little concerned--a friend just described an elaborate, many-stories tall Lego house that she's hoping for!  Geez, friends can raise the bar for present expectations! haha

From the Kitchen:  I owe Arwen a huge apology.  She and her friend baked Christmas "cookies" yesterday, except they put the dough in a pan and made "bars".  I was pretty disappointed because I was envisioning getting a head start on the cookie platter.  However, last night I gave the bars a try...and...they were a mazing!!!  I'm cutting them small and putting them on the platter after all! Teaches me to be critical! 

Living the Liturgy:

Despite the several things I posted about in the first week of advent, I just never got around to setting up a "hay for baby Jesus" crib this year.  (I'm sure you know, but you place in a piece of straw for each prayer or sacrifice and thus prepare a soft bed for Jesus by Christmas).  Not to be deterred, last night I capitalized upon the fact that it was the first day of the "O Antiphons" and told the kids that for this final octave before Christmas we would be working extra hard to get ready for Jesus.

Yep, I made it seem like this was all liturgically correct and not at all last-minute-fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants.  I'm really good at that.  It's a talent.  You could be jealous, but then again, you probably had your hay crib up on the first day of Advent! haha

Do you know that I really love the "O Antiphons"?  I didn't even know what these were until a few years ago.  If you don't, just think of "O Come O Come Emmanuel".  That song was written for the "O Antiphons": O Come Thou Wisdom, O Root of Jesse, Key of David...just find all of the verses and you'll have 'em!:)

The Antiphons are prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours, and these are the ones for December 17-Christmas Eve.  The first letter of each antiphon spelled backwards is "Ero Cras", latin for "Tomorrow I Come".  You should check out what Jessica does over at Shower of Roses--someday I'd love to be that organized and have a family gift for each day leading to Christmas.  

Around the House:

Are these nesting dolls cute or what?  Baby Jesus is still inside of Mary.  They're new this year, and I will add that they're quite sturdy.  My kids have been playing with them a lot.  (I think I got them from the Catholic Company??  They sell the shepherd with animals and three kings too).

 Rudolf has been a very present figure in our home this Advent.  Legolas loves him!  His nose lights up and blinks as "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer" plays.

Worth Checking Out:  A friend of mine has shared some beautiful thoughts on suffering, the vocation of marriage, and God's mercy and grace.  Consoling words for those of us feeling a little less than pristinely prepared for the coming of Our Savior:

She writes: I may have lost out on a couple of months, but it wasn't too late to change my tune.  God is always ready and waiting for us to turn to Him.  We fall and fall again.  But we have to keep getting back up again and renewing our firm amendment to try harder in the future.  God's mercy is always available.  His help is always there.  We just have to choose to want it.

read the rest here

Plans for the Week:  Well, besides wrapping all of the gifts for my ten person family...

We're finishing up basketball games before a nice, long, three week break in the season.  My kids are off to a great start.  Gimli is on a great team and holds our family record for game points (I think it's 12, I'll be in trouble if I have this wrong!).  Aragorn is point guard on a team that isn't super-loaded with talent.  They have seen a victory, but yesterday was a devastating (30-point?) defeat.  I'm proud of how hard he plays.  And Arwen is an off-guard this year on a team with lots of good athletes.  There aren't any "stars" on her team, but they all work together really well, and they're fun to watch play.  In fact...I gotta go run to one right now!

Burnout

**my caps isn't working for some letters on my keyboard...the "typos" are something I can't help right now...

It's funny, I've been reading Elizabeth Foss' "Comfort and Joy" e-book this Advent.  It's all about keeping your eye on the important thing, preparing for Jesus, and not pushing yourself to do everything.

she tells us to look at the Christmas tree lights, to slow down, to eat well and take time to pray.

I read, I agree...

and then: my husband informed me that our children's home schooling has been a joke lately.  I came down with a nasty cold on top of my lingering morning sickness, and I've been fighting migraines this pregnancy.  I am also slotted to host Christmas dinner for my (large) extended family.  [And I really, really love hosting my family!]

Yesterday morning I created a schedule in which our children would work diligently on their school work until noon, then we would go as a family into the basement and clean.  we had shelving units that need to be cleared out and a toy room that needed weeding and re-organizing.  There is a ping-pong table and a foosball table (courtesy of Gimli's 11th birthday this month:)).  I love the idea of the kids (and men) having "tournements" in the basement while the ladies chat upstairs.

As I finished math and reading on the couch with Rosie, I also suddenly felt feverish.

I stumbled upstairs to my bedroom and climbed (crawled?) into my bed.  Legolas came up, sobbing, because his Daddy wouldn't let him watch an episode of "Curious George".  I pulled him in next to me.  Eowyn came in too, and cuddled next to me with her dollies.  For some reason she likes to stroke my cheeks...

I gave very specific orders to my children as to their jobs in the basement.   They were eager to help.

And then my husband came in.  Legolas had fallen asleep (pretty sure he has my cold).  He said that if I was this sick that we couldn't host Christmas.

Luckily, there are ten days to go.  But it was a low moment in a very dark day.

After an hour of basement work, the kids were sent back to school.  They worked until it was totally dark outside: 4:00?  I am eagerly awaiting the 21st of December; on the 22nd the days will grow longer again!

we turned on all of our outdoor lights and all 8 of my children went outside to play in the dark (and wet--I did yell at them to get out of the huge puddle at the end of our driveway).

I threw together something for dinner.  we began "Dangerous Journey" by Laszlo Hamori (recommended by Auntie Leila) as a read-aloud for the whole family and we all got hooked (highly recommend!!)   we lit our Advent candles and prayed a family rosary.  I went to bed when the kids did, and was asleep before most.

Today is a new day.  I'm focusing on pacing myself.  school comes first this week.  Then cleaning.  I'm going to be very patient and save my baking for the days before Christmas that we take off of school.

And if I don't recover from my cold, or move a bit past this morning sickness, then we really might let my mom host Christmas.  

I can't burn out.  I can recover from sickness.  I can cut my loses.  I really can cancel hosting Christmas.

 I can't cancel Christmas--that comes, He comes, ready or not.  I need to be ready.

                        

St. Lucia Day: Saved!

Last night it was pitch dark and pouring rain.  All of our Christmas lights were on inside.  There was a ring at the doorbell.  There, hood up, stood my niece with dark golden hair, holding a platter with braided St. Lucia bread drizzled with icing and craisins.

My dear sister had baked it that afternoon and shared the enormous loaf that it makes with us.

I had failed, once again, to remember St. Lucy's day.  I always think it's the 14th.  When Father mentioned the feast at Mass yesterday morning, once again I felt totally defeated.  I pretty quickly reminded myself that this isn't really a tradition we need to keep.  We aren't Scandinavian and we have no "Lucy"s in the house.  Still, I absolutely love the idea of my girls waking early to bring hot rolls to the sleeping menfolk in bed.  Hasn't really happened...

But!

Last night I pulled out two St. Lucy picture books and let the kids munch on the gift of St. Lucy bread while we read two more from our basket.

It was perfect.

Santa Lucia, pray for us!

Overheard

I was stringing lights on our Christmas Tree when Legolas (age 3) suddenly said:

"Oh yeah, it's 'Merry Christmas'".

I thought it was cute that he was calling it not just Christmas, but Merry Christmas.  His speech has been a little slower in developing than some of my chatty girls were.

He continued:

"I want something for 'Merry Christmas'!"

At this point I realized that he thought that since we were putting up the tree he thought it was actually Christmas, and I had to try to explain (several times) that Christmas was still two weeks off...

I guess it's time!!

I think all of my readers already know, but to make it official...

I need to make an announcement. :) Our little "Fellowship" is adding a new member.

 Arwen has helped me out.  I was thinking that we really needed a "Sam" (Gamgee). But, since I have a way of knowing these things, I'm pretty sure it's not a Sam.  Arwen came up with the darling new Lord of the Rings character name for me: "Goldberry"! (Tom Bombadil's wife, for those of us who aren't the experts my obsessed children are).

I'm only 12 weeks along, but the violence of my "morning" sickness is my way of knowing if it's a boy or a girl.  We'll probably confirm this (for those of you who are skeptical of my certain knowledge) at our 20 week ultrasound.

If I'm wrong, I'll call our newest addition Sam, but in the meantime, I'll be referring to our little one as Goldberry.

Little Goldberry is due in June, right before the feast of Maria Goretti in early July (I think the 7th).

There's a story I have to tell about our little baby's special patron, but it has to wait.

Right now I have to dash to get ready for Mass and a day full of basketball games!  Telling the story of St. Maria's intercession has been on my to-do list for, well, a trimester!  I'll get there, but this morning, I just really needed to make an official announcement.

Prayers welcome!!

Tree!

 I think my favorite thing about having a Christmas tree up is the lights!  I just love the glow of Christmas lights in the early mornings and again in the evenings.

I don't have quite the story I had to tell about "finding the perfect tree" as I did last year.  This year, Eowyn and I had a cold.  I sent my husband and a representative number of children to find our tree.  I was content to decorate whatever tree they might find.:)   And they found a beauty!  It's a 7-8 footer, full, green and very healthy.  I wonder if a new tradition is forming?  There's something nice about the surprise; waiting at home to see what tree will be ours this year!

See the pretty flowers peeking up in the foreground?  A friend surprised me with a bouquet of flowers for my birthday.  I never knew I was such a flower person.  But I am--I really am!  I sort of think of them as frivolous, but every time I look at them: happy!

Also, those felt ball garlands?  I stole the idea from my sister who hung hers last Christmas and left them up all year!  They are just too cute and cheerful.  

Short post this year, but I'm working on another one.  A longer and pretty important one.  But you have to wait until I feel better.  

Advent blessings!

Advent Link-up

Today I'm joining in with Like Mother Like Daughter and sharing where we're at for Advent around our house.

For the record I LOVE Advent!  Maybe it's something about loving babies, and their arrivals?  Those precious, precious days of new birth...and of course, This Birth is infinitely precious, perfect, Divine.

Don't judge me if I seem to be going overboard.:)  Here we go!

I popped my nativity scenes, sans baby Jesus, up on my mantles (I have two. My fireplace is double-sided).  This one is from my Mother-in-Law (we've gone through a Jim Shore phase in our relationship):

Yes, St. Joseph is missing a hand, and the donkey's ears and tail are glued on...and the shepherd lost his crook, and hand... Let's call it a much-loved set.:)

And this set is from my sister-in-law:

My very favorite piece--the donkey!

I always wonder if I should nix the trees...???  Anyway, it's beautiful.  And yes, like the above set, just about every figure is broken.  I did consider that the Stations of the Cross (that I hung last Lent, seen under the mantle) might be unseasonal and finally need to come down.  But upon contemplating the scene from my couch, I have found the juxtaposition of Jesus' begining and fulfullment of his mission as our Savior to be a beautiful and rich source of meditation: the Stations stay!:)

I picked up a little 3-foot tree this year to hang our Jesse Tree ornaments on.

  Unfortunately, I'm not finding a picture of the tree...hmmm...well, imagine a three-foot tree.  Earlier this week I did a little ornament making project with the kids.  Just cut out felt shapes, decorated with glitter glue, stuffed with cotton balls, and sewed with embroidery floss:

 You can't go wrong, they all turn out darling!  I think it's the glitter...
We don't have our tree yet, so the kids hung them up with the Jesse tree ornaments on the little 3-footer:

 This one is Bilbo's manger (drying):

 Moving on, I pulled our Christmas books and have been making myself feel like a very good Mom by reading through them with the kids, a few each day.  (This is the result of many years of purchasing!  Remember, I have 8 children and I've been home schooling since my 14 year old daugher was 3!)

I have this Jesse Tree up...but only this (lame) picture of it.  It's just a paper kit, but I laminate it and my last one lasted for 5 years.   We re-did it this year.

 Our felt Advent calendar:

Cutest little figures, but they do hang, sort of...off...as the velcro isn't perfect.

And, I've got this wooden one: 

Last and maybe least, I surprised my kids this year with a playmobile Advent "calendar."  A new toy a day until the scene is complete on Christmas.  Totally secular, but they're having a lot of fun with it.:)

 

Oh! And of course we have an Advent Wreath!! Of course, I have no picture of it.  Anyway, just know that all of the above, which added up is a lot, was collected over a decade and a half of marriage.  Now I just pull it up in a box from the basement.  Looks good on a blog, but not really as impressive as all that...not that it doesn't set the mood for the kids to get ready for Christmas!

And yes, it's all about the waiting!  The preparation of our hearts for Jesus.  Anyway, that's about it for us:).  Thanks for dropping by!