Book recommendations from our Christmas & Epiphany stash...

Morning all! I had a better overnight and wake up this morning, my second day of being back to work post-holiday break. Sunday night, I woke up every 60 minutes, looking at the clock in a panic. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS. Last night was much improved, even after staying up a little later than planned with Mike and my glass of wine to catch up on Downton Abbey.

But I digress (no surprise there...) Before I get on with the main topic for today's post, I wanted to mention the lovely write up Cam has over at A Woman's Place for an Epiphany blessing for your home. There is a link for the prayers to bless a piece of chalk with Holy Water and then bless your house with it, and you can do this yourself in the absence of a priest. Today *is* technically the feast of the Epiphany, although the Church observes it on the Sunday following the feast of the Holy Family. I printed all of the prayers, and so long as I can scare up some Holy Water and a piece of chalk tonight, I plan to do this with the kids!

Ok, so books. I wanted to mention some of the books that I received this Christmas, and some that I gifted this Christmas and Epiphany, since I'm so pleased with them. And yes, I did an Epiphany gift for each child this year! We're celebrating all 12 Days of Christmas over here in our efforts toward incorporating the liturgical year into family life more. Fun. :)

Here are the books that I wanted to mention, figuring that one or more of them might capture your attention as well. I'm going to get all librarian on you and organize them into categories, it's a regular Readers' Advisory over here..

*adjusts bun*

Dance 

I love dance memoirs (I absolutely raved about Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet several months back), and my sister gifted me Dancing on Water: A Life in Ballet, from the Kirov to the ABT:

 This one is intriguing enough to warrant including the description from Amazon:

Dancing on Water is both a personal coming-of-age story and a sweeping look at ballet life in Russia and the United States during the golden age of dance. Elena Tchernichova takes us from her childhood during the siege of Leningrad to her mother’s alcoholism and suicide, and from her adoption by Kirov ballerina Tatiana Vecheslova, who entered her into the state ballet school, to her career in the American Ballet Theatre.

As a student and young dancer with the Kirov, she witnessed the company’s achievements as a citadel of classic ballet, home to legendary names—Shelest, Nureyev, Dudinskaya, Baryshnikov—but also a hotbed of intrigue and ambition run amok. As ballet mistress of American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1990, Elena was called “the most important behind-the-scenes force for change in ballet today,” by Vogue magazine. She coached stars and corps de ballet alike, and helped mold the careers of some of the great dancers of the age, including Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Gregory, Natalia Makarova, and Alexander Godunov. Dancing on Water is a tour de force, exploring the highest levels of the world of dance.

Yes? I can't wait to read it. I also used a gift card to download a book concerning a sub-category of dance fascination to me, Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World:

The Nutcracker is the most popular ballet in the world, adopted and adapted by hundreds of communities across the United States and Canada every Christmas season. In this entertainingly informative book, Jennifer Fisher offers new insights into the Nutcracker phenomenon, examining it as a dance scholar and critic, a former participant, an observer of popular culture, and an interviewer of those who dance, present, and watch the beloved ballet.

Fisher traces The Nutcracker’s history from its St. Petersburg premiere in 1892 through its emigration to North America in the mid-twentieth century to the many productions of recent years. She notes that after it was choreographed by another Russian immigrant to the New World, George Balanchine, the ballet began to thrive and variegate: Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. The dance world underestimates The Nutcracker at its peril, Fisher suggests, because the ballet is one of its most powerfully resonant traditions. After starting life as a Russian ballet based on a German tale about a little girl’s imagination, The Nutcracker has become a way for Americans to tell a story about their communal values and themselves.

Tradition, dance, Christmas?! *swoons* I'm planning to start this this weekend when Mike and I are away on our second honeymoon trip. :)

Pioneering & Other Historical Classics

I've been into a pioneering theme lately, and Mike bought me the new annotated Laura Ingalls Wilder autobiography, Pioneer Girl:

It's on backorder at Amazon, so I haven't received it yet, but I'm super excited to read this when it comes.

Along this theme, I have become obsessed with a series I discovered in early December for children ages 4-8. They are the My First Little House books, and I absolutely LOVE reading these to Anne. I got her several for both Christmas and Epiphany, including Winter Days in the Big Woods:

I plan to add to her collection at Easter. I think Anne looks a lot like the illustrations of Laura, and she agrees. *heart*

My sister Shauna'h bought Anne Ox-Cart Man, an absolutely charming story about a year in the life of a farming family:

And at the last minute, I ended up purchasing  A Little Women Christmas for Anne, and I am SO glad that I did:

The illustrations are absolutely breathtaking, and the story heartwarming. Every morning I find this book in Anne's bed, as she wanted to look through it via her nightlight before falling asleep. :)

Cozy Fiction

This is always a favorite category of mine, and I can't wait to read the new Mitford novel, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, which my in-laws gave me:

For those who haven't read this series:

           After five hectic years of retirement from Lord’s Chapel, Father Tim Kavanagh returns with his wife, Cynthia, from a so-called pleasure trip to the land of his Irish ancestors.

            While glad to be at home in Mitford, something is definitely missing: a pulpit. But when he’s offered one, he decides he doesn’t want it. Maybe he’s lost his passion.

            His adopted son, Dooley, wrestles with his own passion—for the beautiful and gifted Lace Turner, and his vision to become a successful country vet. Dooley’s brother, Sammy, still enraged by his mother’s abandonment, destroys one of Father Tim’s prized possessions. And Hope Murphy, owner of Happy Endings bookstore, struggles with the potential loss of her unborn child and her hard-won business.

            All this as Wanda’s Feel Good Café opens, a romance catches fire through an Internet word game, their former mayor hatches a reelection campaign to throw the bums out, and the weekly Muse poses a probing inquiry: Does Mitford still take care of its own?

As well, I received as a gift Last Wool and Testament: A Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery:

AND I'm going to be reviewing it tomorrow as part of a new series!

Catholic Young Adult Fiction

You all know that I'm a big fan of Catholic YA books, and my in-laws gave me Olivia's Gift to add to my collection:

You may remember that I reviewed Nancy Carabio Belanger's The Gate back in July and just loved it.  I'm very excited to read one of her other books.

Relatedly, I heard about the latest John Paul 2 High book, Near Occasions (John Paul 2 High Book 5), the other day and immediately used my gift card to download it:

I've written about these books before, I just adore them. I'm looking forward to diving into the latest installment.

Dot-to-Dot Books

For Henry, he's been really into challenging dot-to-dot books, so I picked up several for him including The Greatest Dot-to-Dot Adventure Book 1:

These are perfect for kids his age and he's working his way through them at an alarming clip. :0 I have two more on order for him as a late Epiphany gift from the Greatest Dot-to-Dot Book in the World series. 

And lest you think dot-to-dot puzzles are just for kids, 1000 Dot-to-Dot: Cities,was one of Mike's gifts:

 ...and he LOVES it! Each one takes him days to do, so challenging they are indeed.

Saints for Middle Readers

Henry is a huge saint story fan, and he has several books that I've bought him over the years. He had a few books in the St. Joseph Picture Books series, and he told me that those were his favorites. Thus, I decided to complete his collection so that he now has all 12 books:

We read a story each night before he goes to bed, it's become a lovely tradition.

Well. This post certainly got longer than I intended, but I hope it was helpful and gave you some ideas for yourself or your kids! Did you get any new books for Christmas? Do let me know in the comments. :)

I'm back, and I don't even know where to start!!

:0

A blogging hiatus is necessary for me each year during the Christmas season, but I tell you, it throws me off. I feel all weird when I don't blog. And there was so much that happened that I am certain much of it will get glossed over due to sheer overwhelment (is that a word? it is now :)) but hey, one does what one can. ;-) I will summarize all of the family and liturgical goings on as best I can and call it My Very First Post of 2015!

*streamers!*

I hope that you all had a beautiful and blessed Christmas season, ALTHOUGH aforementioned season technically extends until Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. So we're still celebrating! I really, really focused on that this year, the fact that Christmas is a season and not just a single day. I think I felt it so deeply this year in particular because with small kids, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day take on a chaotic quality. But beginning with the feast of St. Stephen on December 26th, my Christmas season was absolutely sublime. :) I kept mentioning this to Mike and the kids ("Christmas is a season, we should still be playing Christmas music!!") and they humored me very nicely. 

Ok, so! Last we spoke it was Christmas Eve. We spend Christmas Eve with my family, which is much larger than Mike's, hence the chaos. Earlier that day I wanted to go to Adoration to maintain a serene and sacred feel to the day, and Henry actually wanted to go with me. We made the journey out to one of the two parishes in the area that has a Perpetual Adoration chapel and...

It was closed. :0

Not so perpetual, but understandably, they had a hard time finding enough adorers to fill the slots over the holidays so they closed it for a few days. The church itself was open, with the organist practicing for the Vigil Mass that evening, so Henry and I went and prayed in there for a few minutes. Well, I prayed, and Henry prowled around :) but I thought that was just fine. He was all excited to be in the darkened church and able to find fascinating saint-related hidey holes, and he brought me over to a nook with a St. Therese statue and a candle stand. He expressed interest in going to Adoration with me again when the chapel re-opens, and I couldn't be more pleased.

So, the morning and afternoon went well. While Henry and I were on our Adoration Adventure, Mike texted me to pitch the idea that instead of our traditional pilgrimage to a Christmas Vigil Mass, in which we need to arrive 30 minutes early to get a seat and are smashed into a pew for about an hour and a half with a wiggly Anne, maybe we could consider attending Christmas Day Mass? I was skeptical at first, but he talked me into it. And how did that go? Read on, kind visitors.

So, no Vigil Mass meant that getting ready for our family dinner was easier, and Anne napped right up until we left anyway. She predictably woke up on the wrong side of her little stuffed animal infested bed, and then refused to wear the Christmas Eve dress my mom bought for her. She left the house with a pouty face. Henry was in good spirits, but you know, this is Henry's excited face:

Looks like he's about to undergo involuntary medical testing :0

For my part, I was wearing a black velvet dress and a snowflake necklace that I made just for the occasion:

No photo of me *in* said items, Anne was making me too stressed for selfies. :0 But off we went, and dinner was lovely. I got to see all four of my nephews, including the 2 year old twins, who are so cute you could just kiss their little faces off. I'm certain that they wouldn't appreciate an effort in that regard, so I restrained myself.

Christmas morning found us opening gifts, and then headed to 10 am Mass, and can I just say, Christmas Day Mass =

*Hallelujah!*

I couldn't believe it when we walked in. As opposed to the Vigil Mass, which is beautiful, but suffocating, this Mass didn't even have as many people as a Sunday during Ordinary Time. And we went to our home parish, so it was just SUBLIME. Anne immediately gravitated to the large nativity set, and we went up before Mass started to adore the Newborn King. :)

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Lots of family visiting followed that afternoon and evening, and we were all a bit exhausted by the end of the day.

The kids, of course, were very happy with their gifts, as was I. I received a lot of great books, and I plan to spotlight those tomorrow. But I also received some beautiful new Catholic gifts. Shauna'h gave me this St. Kateri rosary:

I squealed when I saw it. :0 Such fabulousness (another word I just made up...) Anne received another saint softie to add to her collection, and here she is showing off St. Therese now joined in prayer power with Our Lady Star of the Sea:

On the feast of St. Stephen, we got together with my parents to exchange gifts, and they gave me a gorgeous new iPod Nano, which I really needed, since my old one is showing major signs of wear and tear, and I rely on it so heavily for my large music collection and Catholic podcasts. She's purple, and I've named her Cecelia :0

Also on that day, we have Anne posing with our dog nephew, Roscoe:

Cuteness. She's modeling her new Elsa necklace, crafted by my sister Shauna'h. We spent some more time that weekend (Holy Family weekend, appropriately :)) visiting with my sisters and nephews before everyone headed home.

On New Year's Eve we went to the vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God amid a winter storm blowing into Western New York, and coziness was experienced by all. :) I used a new cookbook that I received for Christmas to prepare potato soup in the crock pot, and we also had a shrimp/cheese/olives/bread combo spread after we returned. And on New Year's Day, Mike and Henry finished a 3D puzzle of St. Basil's Cathedral that had been one of his gifts, and just in time for St. Basil's feast day January 2nd :0

In honor of the 2015 patron of this blog!

 Impressive, yes? It was an absolutely wonderful week, and now here I am, back at work.

*sniffle*

But I'm hanging in there, getting back into my routine. And can I say that I am SO excited for 2015? I have never in my (very good and happy) life felt so optimistic about a new year before. Life is good, my friends. I'm looking forward to all of the spiritual opportunities the new liturgical year has to offer, to celebrating 10 years of marriage to Mike this weekend (post on that coming Thursday!), to spending time with my family, to hopefully attending the Catholic New Media Conference in June...There is so much to look forward to. And I look forward to experiencing and sharing it all with YOU, dear reader!

How was your Christmas season so far? Do leave a comment to share it with me!

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Stephen

Afternoon all, and I hope that you are all having a wonderful Thursday. :) Me? Well, my day started off with a bit of an adventure. I left the driveway to head to work, my Fr. Roderick podcast happily playing in the background, and all of a sudden my audio started sounding like an alien spaceship was landing in the background. I have an old car, and thus an FM transmitter to listen to my iPod, so these types of occurrences aren't all that rare. :) Then, precious Fr. Roderick stopped talking altogether, and I looked down to see that my radio was off. Huh? I was pondering this surprising development as my car started making gasping noises and stalled. Uh oh, not good. I managed to coast around the corner and off to the side of the road to try and get it restarted. Let's just say that didn't go well. A phone call to Mike had him and Anne swooping in to rescue me, with a tow truck soon behind. Both Mike and the car shop guy think it's the alternator, but we're waiting for them to call with an official diagnosis. So, I'm at home waiting on the car, and I'm hoping that it'll be fixed today. Always an adventure. :)

At any rate, welcome to December's edition of The Church Triumphant! Everything is moved up a week in December (book club, this series) to accommodate the holidays, so the dates are off a bit. We usually do all of these posts in the 4th week of the month. But anyway, today I'll be discussing a saint  with an upcoming feast day - St. Stephen (feast on December 26th).

These Advent and Christmas feasts are so lovely, are they not? Now, I will grant you, St. Stephen isn't exactly an easy story to read through. This poor soul is known for his death by stoning by those calling his beliefs blasphemous, and he is the very first Christian martyr. A key part of his story is the presence of the future St. Paul in the crowd during all of this. Quite a dramatic scene that was, I am certain, especially since St. Stephen was praying for his persecutors as they were stoning him. You can see from the iconography in the photo within this post that he is portrayed as a deacon carrying stones atop his Bible. He is also shown carrying a green palm, which symbolizes victory. Martyrs are often depicted carrying palms for their triumph over the enemies of their soul.

St. Stephen's feast falls during the traditional 12 Days of Christmas, so we're starting that off on a powerful note. :) I keep emphasizing to my kids that Christmas is not a single day, but is an entire season. And each day within has special meaning. St. Stephen's feast day, to me, signifies trust. Total abandonment to trust in the will of the Father. Not an easy thing, to be sure. But also faith, hope and love. These things apply to many things in our lives, usually cheerier things like a wedding, but they apply to martyrdom and death as well. Certainly, these things were all swirling about in the mind of our Blessed Mother in the early days surrounding the birth of her child. How do they apply to each of us in our specific vocations and states in life?

The Second Day of Christmas, when I was a child, always seemed like a "letdown day." You look forward to Christmas Eve (our big extended family celebration) and Christmas Day (gift opening and general frivolity) for months, and then it's like someone just let all of the air out of your balloon with a fork. It's December 26th, and it seems like the only thing ahead of you is the longest part of the winter and going back to school. Of course, at that time  I lacked a full understanding of the Christmas season, not to mention maturity. Now I see December 26th as the beginning of a season of promise, with St. Stephen as our model in faith. We always have that, no matter what, and we're only just beginning (no matter our age) to discover what God has in store for us. What's not to be joyful about in that?

Who has a special devotion to St. Stephen? Do write in a comment. :)

I have a Christmas party tomorrow and won't be able to blog, but I hope that you all have a beautiful Fourth Sunday of Advent, and I will be reporting in first thing Monday morning. Until then!