Second Sunday of Advent - Ours was fun, how was yours?

Hello all! I'm coming off of a super nice weekend. Of course, I will detail everything for you. :) I had a *fantastic* time at our dance performance on Saturday, I'll write about that tomorrow. Also, just a quick note that Karen from Silver Hill Treasures is hosting a giveaway for a Spanish lace mantilla through Thursday, and the winner gets to pick the color of her choice! This is a gorgeous style of veil, enter today! 

Ok, so the Second Sunday of Advent. Here is mine:

All purpled up and ready for Mass!

I took the kids to Mass for the 10 am family liturgy. Anne had been cranky, so I was praying that she wouldn't embarrass me too badly. Away we went!

The Mass itself was lovely. Two purple candles were lit up on the altar Advent wreath. Anne seemed particularly taken with this factoid. I love the special Prefaces for Advent that we're currently using during the Sunday liturgies. I noted that we're still using Preface I of Advent. Next week we may move to Preface II!

Yesterday's reflection in Magnificat was from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, talking about the tradition of the Christmas Crib during this season of Advent, how one can set it up following the feast of the Immaculate Conception to share with Mary the immediate trepidation leading up to Jesus' birth. Love.

We made it through Mass with both children behaving well. I was grateful. Our parish sponsors a Giving Tree for families in need during the season and those gifts are due back next Sunday. Henry reminded me of that before we left. :)

Back at home, my battle with Anne to keep the Fisher Price nativity set set up nicely finally wrapped up. Anne: 1, Mommy: 0. She just wasn't really into playing with it and wanted her princess castle back downstairs, but nor would she leave the figures set up in an understandable fashion. Lots of nativity scene marauding went on while Mommy wasn't looking. I think if we had freshened up the batteries so that "Away in the Manger" could have successfully played when you pushed down on the angel that would have increased her interest in it. However, the "Away in the Manger" situation with working batteries quickly loses its charm and becomes a Near Occasion of I May Lose My Mind. Ask me how I know this.

In light of this, I crept back up into our storage because I know I had come across approximately four nativity sets when we were putting out the Christmas decorations. I thought I'd set up a nicer one beneath the tree since that is the reason we are doing all of this, no? There needs to be a nativity set up for Advent and Christmas.

Going through all of the stacked boxes in the storage was about as much fun as you would expect. The first nativity-related bag I came to I snatched up and headed back downstairs.

It quickly became apparent that I had never seen this nativity set before. I did remember both grandmothers saying they had given me nativity sets recently, none of which I remembered, so maybe this was one of those? I carefully dumped the bag out and found a motley assortment of characters. A lone evergreen tree, unlikely to be present in the ancient Middle East. A shepherd carrying a lamb across his shoulders who appeared to be made of a completely different material than his colleagues. A few sad looking sheep. *Two* cribs containing a baby Jesus. Mary. And...two other men.

*eyebrow furrow*

In no interpretation of the nativity scene would we have only two men, neither of whom appeared to be Joseph. Hum. Contender #1:

Who the heck is *this* guy?

One of the three Kings? I don't know, questionable. He's kind of tall, if that means anything. He *is* carrying something, but it's of indescernible significance. Of the two, I thought he had the most promise to be a Joseph stand-in.

"Hank, come look at the nativity. Does that look like Joseph?"

"No way, Mommy."

Mew.

I had been holding out hope for Contender #1, because Contender #2:

CLEARLY *not* Joseph

And there were no other guys in the bag. None. I had put the shepherd out but then tucked him back into the bag when it became obvious that he was way out of his element with this crew. Ultimately, this set didn't last an hour under the tree. Too weird. I need to go back through the storage.

#longsufferingsigh

After our morning adventures, I had tickets to take Henry to see a local production of The Nutcracker. I had taken him last year and he loved it. There is always a beautiful display of nutcrackers and other trinkets for sale outside the theater, and as expected, Henry and I had a blast with that. I was very easily talked into purchasing a nutcracker to display for the season, and we picked out two ornaments to bring back to Anne, who had cried when we left without her. One of the ornaments is a beautifully decorated lollipop, and when I tried to put it on the tree Anne burst into tears. She loves it so much she's insisting on carrying it around with her. I drew the line at taking it to bed with her like she requested, it had to wait on her dresser for her to wake up. I'm thinking the decorative sprinkles are not long for this world. She did try to eat them, but that's not the full reason for why a bunch have fallen off. :0

The show was just beautiful. I have a tradition with my mom of attending every year, and it's just so lovely. The mood is always so festive, and I love watching dancing. I can't wait until Anne is old enough for us to bring her.

After we got back and put the kids to bed, Mike and I made a fire and watched The Thin Man with Myrna Loy and William Powell. It's set at Christmas, so it feels seasonal. It was a perfectly sublime day.

So now you know about my Second Sunday of Advent! Would you like to share yours? Linkup below! I'll have another of these weekly posts up next Monday for the Third Sunday of Advent. Isn't Advent life grand?