Still sick, but having a happy Advent

Whatever it is that I have is lingering on and on. Anne seems to be on the mend, but now Henry is saying that his throat hurts a bit and he definitely sounds stuffy. These are my exact symptoms. And he and I were already sick about a week and a half ago!

*sniffles daintily*

At least Anne slept last night, which meant that I got to sleep. Not getting enough sleep certainly makes things a lot worse when one is sick. She's still in a pretty saucy mood, but things were a bit easier this morning.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting. I'm finishing up a gift for my sister, and I'm going to make my dad a hat next. He's a fisherman and needs lots of heavy wool for warmth since he fishes in the winter. I also have 2 sweaters on the needles, and I think I've come to the conclusion that the red tweed sweater I was trying to finish for Christmas day simply isn't going to be done by then.

*moment of silence*

I mean, I knew the chances of that were likely. I just bought a dress at Kohl's (they're having a sale :)) that I can wear instead. It's the sleeves I tell you, the SLEEVES! Long sleeves get me every time. I'll be whipping through the body and then I get to the sleeves and BAM! Sweater sits for the next 6-12 months. I get so bored knitting sleeves. We'll get there.

I also have plans in the new year for the Jimmy Beans Downton Abbey KAL, Karrie's memorial Lady Edith shawl that I mentioned yesterday, and an after-Christmas exchange gift with my beloved friend Karen. I'm plotting that one out right now, and I'm all giddy with new pattern ideas. And I'll finish the 2 sweaters. I promise.

Eventually.

I've also been an excellent girl and using stash yarn.

*halo*

Because I really do have plenty of yarn, 2 storage bins full. The only short term purchase plans I have are for things that truly don't exist in my stash. Our tree skirt is looking bedraggled, and I'd like to knit us a new one for next Christmas. I found a gorgeous pattern, but obviously I do not have a boatload of red and green worsted weight yarn in my stash. I'd also like to knit a warm blanket for our couch. I do have a few afghans that I've crocheted, but a crocheted fabric lets in a lot more chilly air. :) I'm hoping for some Knit Picks gift cards for Christmas *angelic smile* and maybe I can get yarn for these 2 projects sometime in January or February.

In other news, last night I finished Jan Karon's Shepherd's Abiding. So good! When the book reaches its climax at the end, I always cry. Now I'm contemplating whether or not I should download the pope's infancy narrative book or not, still haven't pulled the trigger on that. But I'm still reading several Christmas-themed Love Inspired books on my Kindle, so those are making me happy. If you haven't read any Harlequin's Love Inspired line, I encourage you to do so if you like romance books. The regular Love Inspired's are contemporary fiction, but they also have a historical line and a suspense line, which is my favorite. These are very sweet Christian romances, and if you have a Kindle, on Amazon they are super cheap. Once they are published on the first of every month, the price drops to either $2.99 or $3.82 per book. If your ereader can work with epub format books, you can download them right from Harlequin a month early. Those of us with Kindles are not so lucky. :) But it's all good. I love them.

Anyway, my Christmas party with my fabulous knitting group is tomorrow and I'm taking the day off to drink, knit and be merry (and hoping that I feel better by then!). I will post pictures of the gift I knitted for our exchange on Monday, and trust me, it's SMASHING. I want it for myself, actually.

Second Sunday of Advent and all it's adventures...

Well, my weekend was interesting, never a dull moment in my household. Saturday morning dawned with Anne clearly feeling under the weather. In fact, Anne not feeling well dominated both days and nights of our weekend, with the telltale signs being:

(1) lots of sneezing and a runny nose,

(2) a small fever,

(3) poor sleeping,

(4) diminished appetite, and

(5) marauding around the house doing nothing but (a) sobbing, and (b) throwing things.

It was a long weekend, to say the least.

I didn't know if I was even going to make it to Mass Saturday morning for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, she was just so miserable, but she settled enough for me to feel all right about leaving her with Mike (meaning, I didn't feel guilty about leaving him alone to deal with such a painful situation!) so that I could go. I went, and it was lovely.

Later, she actually seemed to perk up a bit, her fever went away, and she was drinking liquids like a champ. Mike wanted to go to the vigil Mass for the second Sunday of Advent, so we packed up both kids and went. Hence, I did end up doing 2 Masses in 1 day. :) But honestly, they felt so different from each other. It also helped that I went to 2 totally different parishes. For the vigil, we went to a historic church downtown that Mike loves. Both children were good, aside from Anne dumping her Ziploc baggie of small snacks onto the floor while we were standing up to recite the Creed. I was picking up stray raisins for the rest of Mass.

But it was really beautiful, and I'm so glad we went. By the overnight, Anne was back to her crankfest. She was a bit hoarse and was obviously feeling parched, because when she demanded my presence at 5 am in her bedroom, our conversation was as follows:

"JUICE."

"Hi Honey, Mommy is here to..."

"JUICE!!!"

"We're going to snuggle and..."

"JUICE JUICE JUICE!!!"

She doesn't like to take no for an answer, that one. I think she is also getting a new tooth, because she's been drooling up a storm. This all led to an absolutely ABYSMAL night last night in which Anne demanded milk, threw herself onto the floor, and cried for what seemed like 30 straight minutes, all *while I'm holding her and trying to soothe her*. It was ugly.

So I'm recovering a bit today. :) She was still on a rampage this morning, so not much has improved in that regard. We'll get there.

Advent reading

Every 1-2 years, I pull Jan Karon's Shepherd's Abiding off my bookshelf and read it during Advent. I've read it so many times that I skipped last Advent lest the story start to feel too predictable to me, and I happily pulled it out on Sunday.

I've read every book in the Mitford series and enjoyed all of them, but this is my absolute favorite book of the bunch. The series chronicles Fr. Tim, an Episcopalian priest who works in a small town church located in the hills of North Carolina. Assorted other townspeople are featured as well, and the stories are very charming. Some of the books are better than others, but overall I loved the series and recommend it.

Shepherds Abiding takes place during a Mitford Advent, and has our Fr. Tim happening upon a neglected antique nativity scene and spontaneously deciding to purchase and restore it as a Christmas gift for his wife. Nativity sets had played a memorable role in both of their childhoods, and this ragamuffin set captures his imagination as a project to work on leading up to, and during, Advent.

I can't tell you how happy I feel when I read this book. I usually read books on my Kindle these days, but I bought this in print years ago, and I have to say, this is a book that I would only read in print. There are a few beautiful color illustrations included and the cover art inspires me just to look at it. I am keeping it on my night stand this year and only allowing myself to read it before falling asleep to guarantee that it will last me for all of Advent.

Fr. Tim is an endearing character, and he's intimidated by the plaster work and painting involved in restoring his set, especially since his wife is a successful artist. Restoring the set is important to healing his heart toward his deceased (and emotionally distant) father, as well a true gift of the heart for his wife. I loved reading about the research he did to get each piece of the nativity just right in its color and look. 

Definitely a book to check out this Advent. :)

First Sunday of Advent 2012

We had a lovely First Sunday of Advent 2012, and you can see our brand new nativity Advent wreath above. Like every Advent wreath that I've ever owned, the candles tip a bit in the cups, however, they still seem secure in this one, so I'll take it. I know that there is a trick you can do to mold the wax at the bottom of the candles so that they fit into the cups easier, but I would have to do some actual research to uncover that. :) In the background, you can also see our wooden Advent calendar. I'll need to replace this one eventually, it's getting pretty beat up, but for now it still works.

I dug up an Advent wreath blessing prayer on my Kindle edition of the Magnificat Advent Companion and Henry and I blessed the wreath, and lit the first candle. Henry wasn't the best participant, but he's caught some early winter bug and was looking peaked all weekend. He's home from school today and looked just pathetic this morning, poor babe.

At any rate, I'm very happy on this second day of Advent, and am looking forward to further prayer and study. I've heard that the pope's new book on the infancy narrative is a good Advent read. Has anybody picked this up yet?

Advent preparations 2012

This past Sunday I was the catechist for Children's Liturgy of the Word for the feast of Christ the King. The first thing that I excitedly talked about with the kids (before we got into the theme of Christ's kingship) was that this was the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. Just six short days from then, we would begin Advent.

I'm reviewing the book that you see above for Catholic Library World, and I have to say this one is lovely. The author mentions in the introduction how Advent is a time of "ancient expectancy of the Messiah" which is just lovely, no? For each day of Advent, she includes a quote from the Mass readings, a reflection on a Christmas tradition, a suggested family activity, and a prayer. It's very inexpensive at $7.99, you might want to check it out. :) The pages are all in color, it's just beautiful.

We just established the Children's Liturgy schedule for December, and I'm on again December 16th, the Third Sunday of Advent; excited! I was thrilled to secure Gaudete Sunday, so that I can talk to the children about the pink candle; they always love that. :)

Our parish also set up the Giving Tree this past Sunday and Henry picked off a card for us. This year, I asked if he would like to donate some money from his piggy bank toward the gift to the child that he chose off the tree. He agreed, so we'll get buying something over the next few weeks. He can then put it under the tree. We pick a card off the Giving Tree each year, and I think for children this is an excellent opportunity to teach them about stewardship and charity.

Other things that we are doing this Advent:

(1) Lighting our Advent Wreath - We do this every year, and Henry loves the tradition. After struggling with finding a wreath in which the candles will not tip over, this year I purchased this one from Christian Book Distributors:

The candles sit in these little cups and they *look* secure to me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also have fresh taper candles all ready to go. This wreath also has a spot in the middle for a white Christ candle in votive form. I'm going to round one up so that we can light it on Christmas Day, Henry has already asked about this. :)

(2) Open Advent Calendars - Yes, that is plural. Henry loves Advent calendars. He has a chocolate calendar, a Lego calendar (secular, but he loves it) and we have a wood calendar. I toyed with getting Anne a cloth calendar, but didn't pull the trigger. Fisher Price makes one. Maybe next year. She'd most likely just want to eat the pieces anyway.

(3) Put out Nativity Sets - Henry's new Fontanini set is a big hit, even Anne loves it. She squats down next to it and says "Chee!" which is her word for Jesus. It's quite precious, as you can imagine. We also have the Fisher Price nativity set which we'll set out for Anne. I think she'll really enjoy playing with it this year, especially since she has several Christmas board books that we look through together and I identify all of the people in the nativity scene for her.

(4) A Prayer Routine - I'd like to do this, maybe with the above book. Mike puts Hank to bed (I tackle Anne) so I don't have a regular bedtime prayer regimen going with Henry. This would be a good opportunity to start one on as many nights as I can.

I'm hoping that Henry comes home with an Advent project from school as well. Last year he had an Advent prayer chain that he had to hang up and take a link off each day after saying our prayers. It was really cute.

I really want this Advent to be serene and happy, not chaotic in any way. I've already decided to make Christmas gift giving a lot simper this year (more on that tomorrow) so we're off to a good start.

As we approach Advent, I wanted to draw everyone's attention to Michelle's link-up via her blog Liturgical Time.

This link is also posted on the right navigation bar on my blog for the season. There is a collection of Advent-related posts here for any interested readers. :) I'm going to try and link this post up to it and any others that I write this Advent.

It's a beautiful winter day here in western New York and I hope that everybody is enjoying this special time of year!

Christmas in July, literally

Naturally, my poking around yesterday regarding the Fontanini nativity sets revealed a heretofore unknown fact about Christmas and Advent items: Christmas in July sales.

Who knew? Apparently this is the best possible time to buy your Christmas collectibles. My mother-in-law collects ceramic Christmas village pieces (can't remember the collection name offhand) and when I spoke with her yesterday she said that she would always add to her collection in July in anticipation of December since that was when you could get the best deal.

My glee was apparent as I trolled the Internet on my lunch hour. I found a Fontanini set that is slightly different from the one we saw in the Christian gift store, but still lights up and is much less expensive. AND THEN the Christmas in July sale knocked an additional 20% off the price. It comes with a stable including lit hearth, the holy family, and 2 sheep. Given how good the discount was, I was also able to procure the 3 kings and their kingly tent that Henry admired in the store. And the whole shebang included free shipping and a free angel. I'm going to tuck it away and then give it to Henry for his birthday in early November, perfect timing for Advent, and I'm *so* excited. SO EXCITED.

Henry actually brought up the nativity again last night, saying how he wants to collect all the pieces, but his favorite are the 3 kings.

*beams*

I can't wait to give it to him. It hasn't shipped yet, not that I'm in any hurry. I'm a bit of a stalker when I order things online though, I'm always dying for them to come. :)

But all of this nativity shopping got me into the Advent spirit, and before I knew it, I was on Christianbook.com's Advent page looking at Advent wreaths, since we desperately need a new one. Henry and I were discussing those as well. I could see Mike arching an amused brow as we excitedly discussed what type of Advent calendar we wanted for this year and what other devotions we should look into. I'M SO EXCITED.

I've also got some Christmas crafting planned for gifts that I'll share at a later date (needless to say, they're cute) and I'm on an email list to be notified when the Advent wreath that I've got my eye on becomes available for the year.

I'm insane.