My little ones are getting so big *sniffle!* - tales from the 4th Sunday of Advent...

Morning everyone! As you can see from my photo (sort of, sorry for the bad lighting via the camera on my phone :0), all of our candles are lit, and Christmas is this week. Terribly exciting, yes? I'll be honest though (which I tend to be on this blog, that's part of why I love it so much and have kept writing all these years), my weekend was a bit stressful. I'm experiencing the Advent blues it seems, but I remember going through this during Lent this past year as well. As soon as the Easter Vigil hit though - :0. Everything was great. I'm hoping that will happen with Christmas too.

*prayers alighting for a perked Catholic Librarian*

I'm trying, I really am. I will say that a highlight was Mass yesterday for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. I got the kids all packed up with promises that all four candles would be lit, and off we went.

The instant we got to the pew, Anne announced that she had to use the restroom, complete with desperate grabbing of requisite body part.

#SomeThingsNeverChange

I took her back and she expressed interest in once again joining the other kids for Children's Liturgy of the Word. I told her that was fine, but that she had to be a very good girl and listen and follow directions via the nice lady leading the group. She agreed. The Liturgy of the Word hadn't started yet, so I explained that she'd have to process up to the altar with the other kids, which would be new for her. When the time came, she seemed a tad uncertain, but I encouraged her to follow another little girl who appeared in the aisle near our pew. She did, and then looked like she had been doing this for years, eagerly listening to Fr. Jay as he gave them instructions at the altar and then scampering back into the sacristy with the group.

:( :( :(

My baby, where has the time gone? Henry, meanwhile, was beside me, being super attentive and good. We've come a long way from The Incident, my friends. And it is *so nice* to be able to listen to the homily without shenanigans to referee. I could actually *hear* what Fr. Jay was saying, which related to Mary's absolute trust in the Father's plan for her when the Angel Gabriel came to make this dramatic request.

When it came time for the collection, I could see Henry watching the door to the sacristy, as was I, to be vigilant for Anne's safe return. She came dashing out, full of enthusiasm, and bearing an activity sheet relating to the day's Gospel. Though active for the rest of Mass, she was very well-behaved, coloring on her activity sheet and asking to hold my small bag of chaplets, which she lines up carefully on the pew each week.

I was reflecting during the closing hymn on how sad I am that I won't be at our parish for Christmas (we attend at another parish due to a more convenient Mass time) when the older couple ahead of us turned around:

"You have the most well-behaved children at Mass. You must be so proud of them."

I just about teared up. My children have been *ill behaved* at Mass many times. MANY, MANY times. But on the whole, they are good, and that was such a nice thing to hear. On a day when I really need a pick-me-up, I was ever so grateful for that comment. And I so appreciated that they took the time out to say something nice to me. Often, when it comes to children in church, you hear nothing unless someone deems it "necessary" to criticize you or your children. This was so refreshing.

And so, a lovely final Sunday in Advent. As a family, we will attend the Christmas Eve vigil Mass at 4pm. I have always wanted to go to Midnight Mass, but with the kids the ages they are right now, it's definitely not happening for some time. :) And next Sunday is the feast of the Holy Family, I always love that day! And then the feast of Mary, Mother of God. Sublime.

Off-topic, but another highlight from my weekend that I wanted to mention: on Friday, we had our craft group Christmas party and Secret Santa exchange. I've been dying to share what I made, but haven't for fear that it would be seen by the recipient. ;-) And so here we have a super cute reindeer to celebrate Christmas with:

We've named him Sven. :0 He was presented to my Secret Santa assignee, Alix, and I just loved crocheting him for her. Precious! I received a homemade loaf of banana chocolate chip bread and a gift card to buy books or supplies from my Santa. Thrilled! I am very lucky to be a member of such a talented and generous group.

All right everyone, how was your Fourth Sunday of Advent? Do detail in the comments. And tomorrow I have a book review for you, of Catholic historical fiction set in the late Nineteenth Century. Intrigued? Head on back tomorrow. :) See you then!

Baby Jesus makes a pilgrimmage to our parish - Third Sunday of Advent & Bambinelli Sunday...

Happy Monday everyone! I'll be honest - my Monday didn't start out so sunny ;-) but things are better now and I'm feeling up to my usual writing fix for the day. This was a jam packed weekend of liturgical goodness, so let's get started!

Saturday was the feast of St. Lucy, and as promised, I got up to put some cinnamon buns into the oven. I have never made cinnamon buns before, even out of a tube, so I read the instructions very carefully. Apparently, my level of carefulness is directly correlated with unsatisfactory results, because the rolls came out overdone. Leave it to me to screw up processed cinnamon rolls, but there you have it. They were, however, still very edible, and the kids seemed to enjoy them quite a bit. I got out the St. Lucy book (I mention it, as well as a book on Bambinelli Sunday, which I will discuss below, back in my 7 Quick Post from Friday) and this year, Henry didn't seem too interested in reading the whole thing (it's certainly lengthier than your average picture book), but Anne actually sat for the story. I had to modify a few things in the retelling, :0 this is definitely aimed at slightly older kids, maybe in the 8 year old and up range, and I didn't want Anne to be scared. But I will say, I learned a *lot* of good stuff about St. Lucy from this book. For instance, Lucy's crown of candles comes from, not just her name, but a Swedish tradition in which St. Lucy arrived by boat, guiding the way with lights, during a severe famine. She brought wheat to the starving people, and hence that's why we make sweet rolls and breads to commemorate her feast. Good stuff.

We also read the Bambinelli Sunday book, and I was thrilled to see that Henry had brought a flyer home from school advertising that the school parish would be having an official Bambinelli Sunday Mass the next day. So, the children were invited to bring in their baby Jesus figurines to have them blessed during Mass. I was very excited and planned to go, but in the end, we decided to go to our regular parish since we had a bunch of stuff to drop off (Giving Tree gift and some clothes for the donation bin). However, I was all inspired, and insisted that both children pack up their Baby Jesus figurines for a blessing request after Mass for the Third Sunday of Advent:

Anne was super excited about this and immediately got her Jesus ready, as was I. That's my baby Jesus up in the cover photo for this post. :0 Henry on the other hand...he's 9. He's entered this age where he's worried that everything he does is being watched and deemed embarrassing by others. While I sympathize, I think the child is far too paranoid for his own good. ;-)

So Sunday morning, we loaded up all our stuff, including three Jesuses. The kids put the gift under the Giving Tree while I found a pew. I was wearing bright pink in honor of it also being the Third Sunday of Advent, and thus Gaudete Sunday, when we light the rose candle.

*happy sniff*

Anne wore her pink furry boots in commemoration as well. :0 I tucked our Jesus figures into our pew for the end of Mass, so that we could ask our parish priest to bless them. Anne was pretty fidgety, and during the Gospel, asked to use the restroom. This is my lot in life right now, as mother to a 3 year old, so I took her back into the sacristy. While we were back there she spotted the children in the other room participating in Children's Liturgy of the Word. When we finished in the restroom, she asked if she could stay with them.

Well.

*sniffle!*

I thought she might not want to stay without me, so I explained that if she went, she had to sit like a big girl without me and then come back to our pew when they were done.

"Ok, Mommy. I won't be scared!"

She hustled over next to another little girl, looking mighty proud of herself, and waved goodbye to me.

All right then.

*eyes well*

It actually was a nice respite for me to be able to hear the homily, and she came dashing out at the collection, bursting with happy energy. She declared that she wants to go back next week, so we'll see how this goes. She's younger than Henry was when he started going, but the enthusiasm is certainly there. She's getting so big. :-\

At the end of Mass, we got our coats on and hurried to the back with our Jesuses. Anne ran ahead and thus got to Fr. Jay before I did. I saw him hold out his hand to her, likely expecting her to shake it, but instead:

Whap!

She slapped her Baby Jesus into his palm. He looked confused at first, but then I approached bearing two more Jesuses and explaining our request. He was happy to oblige. :)

So we left feeling contented and with three blessed Jesus figures. Anne eagerly deposited them back to their home nativity scenes upon our return. Another lovely addition to our arsenal of Advent Sundays. Just one to go before Christmas!

How was your Third Sunday of Advent, dear reader? Leave me a comment. :)

St. Lucy's feast day approaches - should we have Anne wear a crown of lit candles?! #CouldBeDangerous...

Happy Thursday everyone, and I hope that you are well. :) I absolutely love the feast days during Advent, and a fairly new one to my radar screen is coming up on Saturday December, 13th: the feast of St. Lucy. I thought we could talk about St. Lucy a bit and plot about how to work her feast day into a fun family activity/ domestic monastery thing. :)

Henry is the one who really drew my attention to St. Lucy. He and I read a saint story of some sort each night before bed (we have an entire library of books to pull from). And during the course of these readings last year, St. Lucy made an appearance. What with all of the dramatic eye gougings and blazing fires, the story captured Henry's imagination.

"Wow. Did that really happen to her, Mommy? How was she able to do that?"

*very big eyes*

Since then, he's always been fond of St. Lucy. Last year, I bought the book that you see above, Lucia: Saint of Light to read to the kids on her feast day. Henry read it, but Anne wasn't too interested in longer stories just yet. Plus, it really is written for slightly older children, I would say the 7-8 year range. But the pictures are intriguing, so we'll see how it goes this year.

I'd like to make St. Lucy's feast an annual celebration in our house. Thus, I decided to do some additional research this year. Who exactly was St. Lucy, you ask? Lucy was an early virgin martyr (there's that word again! :0 I always substitute "unmarried" when reading these stories to the kids ;-)) who actually appears in the canon of the Mass in Eucharistic Prayer I. Hence, the Church obviously finds her a pretty important example of courage in faith. Part of her story involves Lucy convincing her mother to seek the intercession of St. Agatha for the cure to a bleeding problem she was experiencing. The two women traveled to St. Agatha's tomb, and while there, Lucy had a vision of Agatha and her mother was cured. Subsequently, Lucy took a vow of virginity and gave her money and belongings away to the poor. When she rebuffed a smarmy suitor wanting to marry her, she was targeted as being a Christian, tried, convicted, and martyred. Unfortunately, we have the torture sequence referenced above. :-\

Traditional activities on the feast of St. Lucy involve the youngest daughter in the family wearing a crown (symbolizing martyrdom, and Lucy's status as a bride of Christ, I'm thinking) of lit candles. Her name means "light," so that's part of it, but it may also have to do with her feast falling during Advent, when we expectantly await the light of Christ. This is all very lovely, but obviously a trifle dangerous.  Especially considering our contender for the crown:

I'm not thinking this is a good idea. :0 I may try to find some crafty materials around the house to make a ribbony crown for her, we'll see. But no candles, please. The other thing that is popular on the feast of St. Lucy is serving coffee and sweet rolls that morning. I have no idea what this has to do with young Lucy herself, but this is the custom. I found a recipe here for an appropriate sweet bread for those brave souls wanting to bake. I absolutely love the idea of placing lit candles on the bread, perfect and symbolic compromise! I was all gung ho, but then I saw "active, dry yeast" on the list of ingredients. I have no notion of how one acquires yeast at all, let alone yeast that is all active :0 so I'm not sure if we'll be doing this or not. Maybe I could stop at the grocery store on my way home for some pre-baked "St. Lucy bread." Or at least, that's what I'll call it. ;-)

But I'd like to make the day notable for the kids. There are some other great St. Lucy day ideas over at this blog, if you feel ambitious.

How about you, dear reader? Doing anything special for the feast of St. Lucy?

How are we preparing for *this* Christmas? - 2nd Sunday of Advent & the feast of the Immaculate Conception 2014...

Morning everyone! Hopefully my greeting depicts "chipper!" because I am indeed in a very good mood. I had an excellent and jam-packed weekend, and over the course of the week I'll write about all of it. So! We had the feast of St. Nicholas on Saturday, an action-packed dance performance that evening, the Second Sunday of Advent, taking the kids to see The Nutcracker that afternoon, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception today. I'm going to have my usual Catholic Monday going on, with a recap of the Second Sunday of Advent, plus the feast of St. Nicholas, also touching upon my morning Mass for the Immaculate Conception, as they meld together nicely. Tomorrow will be a Dance Tuesday post recapping all the hafla fun (and it *was* super fun, I just love writing those posts, and I hope you enjoy reading them!), and on Wednesday I'll talk all about The Nutcracker and my first year of bringing both children. That is such a beautiful Advent tradition, I can't wait to write about it.

Ok! So let's get underway with our weekend recap of Catholic devotions and liturgical activity. Friday evening before my last dance rehearsal, the kids set their shoes out on the hearth, and this is what we found in the morning:

Anne chose her pink furry boots to put out there, isn't that a scream?

Books, chocolate coins and saints for everybody. :) The kids really enjoy this feast day tradition, and even though I didn't grow up with it as part of our home faith life, I definitely plan to carry it on. I also think it makes it easier when the inevitable "is there really a Santa Claus?" discussion comes up (as it did 2 years ago with Henry) when the kids already know about St. Nicholas. Santa Claus is a fun tradition based upon a *real* person, a saint, whom they are familiar with, and I think this softens the blow a bit. :)

And Anne, oh my goodness, LOVES her St. Therese saint softie:

PRECIOUS. She takes her to bed to cuddle and carries her around the house with her. I have Our Lady Star of the Sea for her Christmas stocking, and now I'm SO glad that I got her two. The shop that I bought these from is Saintly Silver on Etsy. The owner doesn't have any current listings because she's booked until after Christmas, but she'll have items back up for sale in early January. These are *fabulous* gifts for young children.

Sunday dawned with us adding the second purple candle to the Advent wreath, and I found that someone had rearranged our nativity set:

Apparently, everybody has banded together, including the angel and a sheep, to adore the infant King from outside in a mass lineup. :0 And the responsible party was *super* active at Mass in her excitement about the upcoming Nutcracker festivities, bouncing all over the pew and generally talking for all of Mass:

"ANNE. Shhhhh, Honey. We have to be quiet during Mass."

"I AM BEING QUIET MOMMY!!"

You know how that goes, all of you fellow long-suffering parents out there. I pointed out the two lit purple candles to both kids, and as ever, there are lots of questions and excitement about it being "pink candle Sunday" next weekend.

This morning I stopped off at 8 am Mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on my way into work. This is an interesting one since, being the patronal feast day of the United States, the holy day of obligation is retained even when it falls on a Saturday or a Monday, in contrast to other holy days throughout the year. I love attending Mass during the week, so it's always a blessing to me to have that extra encouragement to do so before work. I stopped off at a parish close to campus so that I would get to work by 9.

There was a pretty decent showing for a holy day Mass, in my opinion. The organist started things off by asking everyone to stand and greet each other, and can I be honest? I *loathe* this practice, lol! It's well-intentioned, certainly, but I find it forced and uncomfortable. The sign of peace is one thing, but this extra bonding activity is an awkward turn off for me personally. Happily, I wasn't sitting close enough to anyone to have to worry about it. I did wish them all peace at the appropriate place in the liturgy, however.

*gold star*

At any rate, the older priest who said the Mass was quite adorable, and he had some really thought-provoking statements in his homily. He mentioned how well-placed this feast is during Advent, when we can reflect on how we all need Christ to save us and help us to become holy. He talked about how Advent is a great time to avail oneself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which I thought was an *excellent* point. The key being - how are we preparing ourselves for Christmas? And he made an explicit point about referencing our preparation for *this Christmas*. Christmas comes every year, and we all know it is a special season, but right now all we need to focus on is the present. Christ wants to dwell among us, and each year we need to prepare and reflect on that anew. I really loved that.

It felt so good to be at Mass during the week, I'm hoping to do that again at least once or twice prior to Christmas. I felt all glowy as I headed into work, and voila! Here I am, starting our week together.

How was your Second Sunday of Advent, dear reader, and your feast of the Immaculate Conception? Do detail in the comments, and come back to join me tomorrow to revel in some dance fun. :)

How is your Advent going so far?

I know it's still just the first week of Advent, but it's a pivotal week, no? We're gearing up, trying to stick to our Advent plans of prayer and almsgiving. It's Thursday, so the second weekend of Advent will fast be upon us, right beside the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th (and a retained holy day of obligation in the United States even though it falls on a Monday, so make sure not to miss Mass!) All within the coming week and a half we also have the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th, Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th and St. Lucy on December 13th. This has become one of my favorite run of feast days in the entire Church year. We should be strong in our Advent goals at this point with all of this great fodder coming up to keep us focused on the upcoming birthday of our King. So, how am I doing?

Pretty good. :) I'm enjoying the season, for sure. How is that Divine Office app for Morning and Evening Prayer working out, you ask? Well. :) I still adore the app, but I haven't been availing myself of it on a daily basis, that's for sure. I need to start afresh on this one. And if I have learned anything in my faith life as an adult, it is that if one falls off the bandwagon with a spiritual resolution, it does no good to bemoan how much of a failure we are and feel guilty. Just try again! Even if it's a special liturgical season like Advent ot Lent, and the dates for your perfectly devised resolution are now all jacked up, it matters not one whit. Just start again. So that's what I'll do.

In other avenues, I have been studiously reading my Magnificat Advent Companion reflections each day and loving them. #goldstar! I've also been making an effort to pray more during the day, squeezing in a decade of the rosary where possible and sticking to my Immaculate Conception novena prayers. I'll be planning a Christmas novena too, stay tuned to join me. :)

I have my Advent music playing daily and my Advent calendar hung up prominently. I already forgot to open the window on December 3rd, oops! So I caught up today. The issue is that I'm having a hard time reading the small text inside each window *actual pause in typing to call to schedule my yearly visit to the ophthalmologist, don't laugh!* and I need to take it off the wall to hold it closer to my face or get my glasses, and so...sometimes I forget. :) But no matter, it's lovely, and I'm all caught up.

The children are loving Advent. Both chocolate Advent calendars are being consumed eagerly and appropriately each evening because we keep them tucked out of their reach until the designated time. As for the other calendars, we have Henry earning a gold star and a glowing halo for his superlative effort and restraint. Here is his Lego Advent calendar so far:

And his paper calendar atop his dresser:

He earns an A for Advent so far. :)

And then we have Anne's Advent calendar:

That would be the floor that it's positioned on, and that would be every window forced open by tiny little fingers. :0 But it isn't fair to give her a grade because she's only three. ;-) We'll try again next year with the Anne calendar!

How has your first week of Advent been, dear reader? Do detail in the comments. :)

Advent calendar overload & who escaped from the nativity scene during the off season?! - First Sunday of Advent 2014...

My little snow bunny

Hello all, and welcome back! Not a totally happy thing, I know. Whenever I'm off for more than 3-4 days, even despite my utter adoration of routines, I dread going back to work. Because I've developed a routine at home, I suppose. Some habits just can't be broken. ;-) Although I tend to want to spend a lot of time on the couch knitting and drinking tea when I'm home, which, while fun, shouldn't exactly be a full time occupation.

But it was a lovely break. We had a lot of wine consumption on Thanksgiving, along with a slight stuffing shortage which resulted in a yearly panic attack by me. Why don't I ever remember this BEFORE making the stuffing?!

"HONEY. Is Dash's open this morning? We only have this one loaf of bread, right?!"

*wild eyed look*

*Mike eyes me with caution*

We persevered. ;-) After that, we had some fun online shopping on Black Friday. Because God forbid I actually GO OUT to a store on that day, let's be serious.

#toomanypeople

We picked out a Christmas tree and brought it home on Saturday. Lovely, yes? Except that somehow our tree looked much more majestic in the lot than it does currently in the corner of our dining room. At home, it looks rather...squat. It is indeed full, but just much shorter than we envisioned. *I* had wanted a cute tree with a few bare spots that just spoke to me as having character. It was a bit of a Charlie Brown tree, but that's part of it's charm. I was outvoted, and so we live with the squatiness. I'll have you know that I didn't say "I told you so." But I wanted to. :0

And then yesterday was the First Sunday of Advent. Such bliss. This is one of my very favorite times in the liturgical year. And the evidence is in the sheer volume of Advent-related products my family and I own. I think the children's Advent calendars had a breeding situation going on because there seems to be a LOT of them this year, but we'll come back to that in a moment. This year I decided to get an Advent calendar of my VERY OWN, one in which *I* was responsible for opening the windows, no tiny, sticky hands allowed. I ordered it well in advance of Advent, but UPS was having a major shipping crises related to our storm from a few weeks ago, and so it didn't come until Saturday night. I was like an anxious dog in the living room all weekend:

"Hark." *ears prick* "I heard a door slam. Is it a delivery truck?!"

But it came, and it's *magnificent*:

In all it's glory, hanging above my dresser...

I like the old fashioned paper calendars, they remind me of my Catholic youth. Each day garners you a tiny picture and a Scripture verse. The children also have paper calendars, one each. And chocolate calendars, one each. :0 And Henry has a Lego Advent calendar. That's *6* Advent calendars for a family of four. Actually, that's not as bad as I originally though, we should go buy a few more, ha!

And then there's the nativity sets. I had them all organized this year to avoid the situation we had last year:

Who on earth is *that guy*?! But a recognizable St. Joseph was nowhere to be found...

And so this year we have three nativity sets, all ready and arranged Catholic Librarian style, since I've been preparing for Advent since July. :0 Anne has a Melissa and Doug nativity set:

We set the 3 Kings up on a shelf, as they travel to meet the Holy Family:

You can see her Advent calendar in the background there. Anne wasn't too happy about the 3 Kings not yet being at the festivities, but I'm making her wait. :)

Henry has his beautiful Fontanini set up, in fact he did it even before Thanksgiving, he loves this stuff so much. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree for sure :0

The Holy Family is super cozy in there with that fire going in the hearth. :) He also has a Bethlehem village collection started, we add to it each year:

That's the Wine Maker's Shop, and the Glass Blower Shop, towards the left. Then there is the animal corral with an ox in it, he really should be over closer to the Holy Family. :) As well as the 3 Kings on the far right, who appear to be having a party of some sort in their tent with a small campfire lit outside. Hopefully, they won't delay for too long. ;-)

And last but not least, we have a new one set up in our dining room near the tree, this time without lending scandal, since St. Joseph is clearly present:

And of course, our Advent wreath:

Advent week 1!

Mass, as expected, was just beautiful. I wore a violet sweater, because I like to match the liturgical color during special seasons and I am a Catholic nerd. I tried to talk Anne into wearing purple, but she wasn't having it. Although once at Mass she was all excited, pointing the lit purple candle out to me, as well as what she calls our deacon's "scarf." Henry made note of the nativity set, since that is his area of expertise, and grabbed us a tag off the parish Giving Tree so that we can buy for another child this season.

For my part, I've been trying to keep up with my Magnificat Advent Companion (solid), as well as Morning and Evening Prayer (one slip up so far ;-)) and generally keep a spirit of reverence and expectation to my prayer life. I'm also praying the Immaculate Conception novena, which is just lovely. I don't have that one noted at the top as a separate blog page since it rather snuck up on me, but I'd like to pray a Christmas novena, and I'll post about that soon and include a page at the top for easy reference!

All right everybody, back to work for me. How was your First Sunday of Advent? Your Thanksgiving weekend? Do leave a comment. This week I plan to post about Christmas books, my knitting projects, and of course the upcoming feast of St. Nicholas! Do come back to join me.

*heart*

Advent 2014...let's start planning!

Morning everyone! I'm feeling pretty chipper today, which is surprising given that Anne didn't sleep all that well. She's been doing better overall, but last night just wasn't a good night for her. There was a "MONSTER IN MY ROOM!" incident, but I think that happened only because her mouth was bothering her and she couldn't sleep. She's getting a molar, and clearly wasn't feeling great, poor babe.

Besides that one wakeup, Mike and I slept well, although Anne woke up with a super sour expression on her little face. :) I downed a few cups of coffee and was ready for the day, so all is right with the world.

I've been thinking about Advent a lot this week, and I'm sure the thought has crossed all of your minds as well, since it will begin just over two weeks from now. This coming weekend is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, followed by the Feast of Christ the King the next, then BAM! The First Sunday of Advent. :) Hence, we need to start planning...NOW!

#hyperorganized

I treat Advent very much like Lent. It's a season of waiting, of expectation, not yet a time of celebration. And I like to have a spiritual plan for it. I try not to be TOO ambitious, in such a way that it's doubtful I'll be able to stick to The Plan for the entirety of the liturgical season. In recent years, I've tried to really tailor The Plan to my current responsibilities and lifestyle and make it doable. So here goes. :)

(1) I'd like to use my Divine Office app as much as I can. I'm aiming for Morning and Evening Prayer each day, but I recognize that I may not always get to it. That's ok, but the goal is to always get back on the horse and start praying again. I'm absolutely loving this app, so I'm optimistic on this one.

(2) The Magnificat Advent Companion. Here is my lovely print copy:

You can also download the Advent Companion for I believe 99 cents on Amazon. There are meditations for each day, special prayers for blessing your Advent wreath and tree, Advent Stations of the Cross, all kinds of Catholic goodness in there.

So, the Divine Office app and the Magnificat, those are the two things are that I will focus on daily. For weekly items, we have:

(3) Mass and adoration. As much as I love daily Mass, it's just not feasible with my current schedule and responsibilities to my job and family. But during Advent, maybe I can squeeze an extra Mass in (in addition to Sunday) once or twice per week? That is a feasible goal. The semester will end during Advent, so the parking situation, and my meeting schedule, eases, and thus getting to work 15 minutes or so later than usual will not be a problem. And I would LOVE to find a way to get to adoration once per week. We'll see how this goes, but this will be my aspirational goal for Advent. :)

I also love to fill my Advent with traditional items like Advent calendars and a family Advent wreath. Of course, I will take pictures of this year's installment to post here. :) Henry has a Lego Advent calendar, and both children are getting chocolate ones. I'm ordering a print one as our "main" Advent calendar, and this is the one I have picked:

I remember calendars like this very fondly from my childhood. Each day you open a window to see a picture and a short Scripture verse. *heart*

I also got turned on to Advent music last year:

I listened to this album on Spotify last year, but I think this year I'm planning to buy it. I actually have the old fashioned CD in my Amazon cart since that way I can listen to it easily in the car if I forget my iPod (yes, my car has a CD player, it's old fashioned just like I am :0) plus have the digital files.

Oh, oh, oh! I just saw this last night on my Facebook feed: if you're a fan of nuns and sacred music, the wonderful Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (my favorite nuns EVER) have a new album out:

I'm planning on procuring it. :) I have their 2013 album, Mater Eucharistiae, and just love it. This will make a beautiful Advent addition to use as we pray our rosary.

So, what are your Advent plans, dear reader? Please do detail in the comments. :) And I do mean detail, I'm a detail-oriented kind of gal. :0 Let's get specific here, people!

;-)

Christmas in July - 2014 edition...

I do this every year:

June - Christmas? Who's thinking about *that*?

July 1st - Hark. Do we have all of the Advent supplies that we need?! These things sell out long before the season starts. I better get on this!!

And let's not even go there with the Christmas gift knitting list. I already started that, July instigates that as well. And we know how that THAT usually ends up. (ill fated Navy Blue Cardigan - I'm looking at you, MISTER).

But yet - every year I'm game again. CHRISTMAS.IN.JULY.SALES.BABY!

Despite the fact that we have so many family nativity sets the nativity people seem to be migrating from set to set and we can't keep track of them all, every year I want to add more nativity fodder to our collection. I do keep good track of Henry's set, because he loves it and I invested in a very nice Fontanini set for him to keep in his bedroom that I add to every year. I want to keep it in good condition and he can take it with him when he's grown and share it with his own children. He has a stable with all of the important people, plus assorted sheep with their own corral, and a few pieces of the Bethlehem Village. Each year, I buy a few more pieces for him and it's become a lovely tradition. Fontanini has a Christmas in July sale every year, and so I take advantage to pick out some pieces, order them, and then tuck them away until his birthday in November. This year I may get him the well, an associated villager, and maybe the barnyard animal set he requested. So, I'm already on top of this order and plotting it out.

Then I had another idea, and it's always dangerous when this happens. :) Anne doesn't have her own set. She doesn't have as much space in her room to display things the way Henry does, and plus Henry has an established love for religious tchotchkes. His set is a very nice 5" version. I was thinking though that I could get her a starter set and see how she likes it. Fontanini has a 3.5" set, and they have expanded the village pieces available in that size. It's more affordable and will be easier for her to handle and display in her bedroom. I espied the "My First Nativity Set" that Fontanini offers in this size, and I was all over it. It is currently residing happily in my cart. :0 It includes a small stable, the Holy Family, and a sheep. No 3 Kings, but we can add them next year. When you place an order online with Fontanini, you almost certainly qualify for free shipping and a discount to your total depending on how much you spend.

So, I'm excited. :) That will make a nice Advent gift for her. I know that she'll like it.

And so, the part you've all been waiting for...CHRISTMAS KNITTING LIST!! We can revisit this in the fall and see how well (or not, snort) I'm doing with this. Since there are no adult-sized sweaters on the list this year, I'm hoping it'll go smoothly, but you know what they say about the best laid plans... We have:

Mike - Socks. He picked out some brown tweed yarn (men, I tell you, no boldness when it comes to color) and we're good to go. No sweaters this year. AMEN.

Henry - Colorful socks (good boy). Chocolate brown scarf that I have the yarn for in my stash. Score.

Anne - Finding Nemo socks (leftover yarn from when I made Henry the same socks). Colorful cardigan made from stash yarn, I make her one every year. Special request for watermelon mittens. I also have the yarn for those.

Mother-in-law - Dishcloths. 2 or 3?

Assorted Christmas Eve gifts for relatives we see on that day - 6 dishcloths


It feels much more manageable this year. Hope springs eternal. If you are a family member and want something added to this list, please let me know. ;-)

Other than that, I've been thinking about a new Advent calendar, but have made no decision on that yet. Any recommendations? Is anybody else thinking about getting Advent items prepared already? Bueller?

I would be thrilled if you would leave me a comment. :)