Midnight Mass 2011

Merry served at Midnight Mass as boat boy.  He was delighted.  The story is he fell asleep in his seat during Mass and had to be awakened. Thankfully he doesn't snore.... much...

This was his first time at the altar. Congratulations Merry!

Our Midnight High Mass was lovely albeit interesting, the events that lead up to it.  Perhaps that is why it ended up being so lovely.  We had an organist who was just great. He ended up very ill and unable to accompany for Christmas.  Wow.  Talk about a test.  Our Latin Mass choir who was going to be missing some very key voices as well, decided to rally.  All hearts and voices were on board, even without an organist... until a wonderful soul-in-our-choir decided she'd be able to accompany.  It was such a blessing. We all had a wonderful time preparing and singing for Midnight Mass, our choir is always full of laughs.  We had some odd faux pas during Mass like when I (who was attempting to bring everyone in on time) completely blanked out on one of the responses so it ended up sounding like the teacher out of Charlie Brown, but otherwise I think it turned out lovely, probably because our hearts were in it only to please Our Lord... with a side hope that no one would be covering their ears screaming "My ears they're bleeding!" (Captain Haddock from the new Tintin.... chuckle)

Merry Christmas

 A blessed Christmas from our family to you and yours.  My you be filled with His Peace, Joy and Love.

Total Cuteness

Crawling is in the near future.

Children's Choir and Preparations

 We have a splendid group of girls for our children's choir.  To thank them for their hard work we had a little pre-Christmas party celebration.

 I received one of the sweetest, most precious Christmas cards from my Little Soprano, I can't help but share.  It brought me such a delightful laugh and smile.

 Gingerbread cookies

 Truffles!  And not pictured were the brownie sundaes.

 Friends for life.

 A beautiful exchange of gifts.

 St. Cecilia boxes.

 Back at home Baby Jesus is making His way into the mangers.... and hopefully in everyone's hearts.

 I don't know but to have the innocence and adoring love of a baby is the way to go.

 He loves me!

 Eleanor begged me for a week now that she just had to have bangs.   (why are they named bangs?)  Galadriel cut her hair, I helped with the bangs.  There were several comments about "now that you look so different, I sure hope you act different."  (meaning an improvement)

 Peer pressure

 Lots and lots and lots of hair and curls.  The oldest ones didn't want bangs as they remember "what a pain it was to grow out"

I think each one had about 5-6 inches cut off.

Christmas Eve

A friend of mine brought up the following question,  "Are you in the Christmas spirit?" At that particular moment my rather gloomy thought was (with a slight chuckle), "Bah humbug! By golly! I've got the perfect disposition of Scrooge wearing the Grinch hat."  But on this day, on the eve of the birth of Our Lord, it made me think back through Advent, what had I actually accomplished, where had I advanced in the life of Grace? From my pre-Advent desirable list.... very little.  The house is not immaculate, the gigantic dumpster I ordered is not filled, the 4 foot pile of books is not read, etc...  We did manage one thing that remained very precious to each one of us. We made a list of people who we would pray for and offer up our prayers, works, joys and sufferings each day.  There are 13 of us, so every day there were 13 special people (individuals, families, groups, parishes, petitions) names drawn and stuck up on the board next to our names.  The youngest only offered up their cuteness but God sees in ways we don't.  We all loved doing this so we have decided to continue this practice. 

It was a difficult, drawn out Advent from my human standpoint but the lesson from within the Stable is one of Poverty of Spirit.  What can I offer God anyway, only my little poorness, just like that little tiny helpless little Babe in the Manger.  Here's my little sacrifice, my little bit of nothing-in-light-of-Eternity.  And you know what else? I know that Our Blessed Mother is there to make my little nothingness something beautiful in the Eyes of God. 

The more I thought about the Spirit of Poverty and the Stable the more I thought about how this tiny baby had nothing at all yet, as our Creator, He had absolutely everything.  I think it is when we accept our nothingness that we suddenly have everything, because all that is left is the Omnipotent Everything....  The Eternal Love..... we have God Himself.  What more could I hope for? What more could I rejoice in?  And all I can ask is that He fill my heart with His Infinite Love.

Homeschooled!

The 4 oldest girls and I went to see Tintin 3D (that explains the "cool" sunglasses in the picture) at the first opening show we could... not to sound impatient or anything. The boys and Dad went the next day.  We had a neat experience when we got to the counter to get our tickets. A man and 2 teens were behind us and apparently we have the "right look" because the man said, "Are you homeschooled?"   I was delighted and felt like I made some new friends I may  never see again  this side of Paradise but who will be remembered in my prayers.  Someday, I hope to meet them again, if no where else.... in Heaven.

Hobbit Trailer

For the Lord of the Rings Fans out there, here's the trailer for the Hobbit.... coming out Dec 2012.  Looks GREAT!  Hopefully the rumors of the the end of the world happen after this...! :D

Bilbo:  Can you promise that I will come back
Gandalf:  No.  *chuckle*   
And even if you do come back, you will not be the same.