Second Week of Advent: Re-developing a winter routine, and settling into serenity

Hello all, and I hope that your Second Week of Advent is going well! We're hanging in over here, and looking forward to some cozy hygge time coming up as we move into the coldest part of winter. This week, we lit the second candle on our Advent wreath:

...AND we were able to go to mass in-person, which was delightful! Our parish is doing some fundraising for repairs to the stained glass windows, so I purchased a CD of our magnificent music minister singing hymns that we enjoyed on the drive home. The kids have also been keeping up with our variety of Advent calendars, and everyone is quietly having a good time with those. 

That morning also heralded the feast of St. Nicholas, and as always my kids left their shoes by the hearth, and were rewarded were some chocolate gold coins and boos. 😎

We did not practice this tradition when I was growing up, but as a parent I have always been on the lookout for ways to draw Church traditions into our home life in ways that would capture my kids' imagination and help them to carry their own faith into adulthood. I have really enjoyed this one, and I know that they do, too.

Sunday was a busy day, as it was also pickup day for the poinsettia and wreath fundraiser at Anne's school. The red ones this year are particularly spectacular!

We seem to have settled into a happy Advent routine, and I'm pleased about that. In terms of other  winter things, we're trying to make things as joyful as we can. The kids are both back in school after being on remote learning for a week, and things are going great. They both are content and happy. 

I've also been crafting, and finished a Christmas doily for a gift this week!

Pattern is Eversong

I just love the color. And...

*drum roll*

I FINALLY finished Mike's cabled cardigan that I've been working on for like 10 years. 😂

Isn't he so cute?!

It's a success! He loves it, and I'm SO GLAD to have that out of my work-in-progress basket!

I'm also working on a few dance projects, including preparing for an online show next weekend, and that all has given me a much needed sense of purpose and nervous excitement! These are all good things, and right now, we need to focus on the good, for sure.

How has your Second Week of Advent been going? I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Adventures in the arts this 2nd week of Advent...

Happy feast of St. Nicholas everyone! :) I am coming off of a SUPER packed weekend with the kids, journeying to various productions in the performing arts. I just love this time of year. *heart*

Henry, in particular, had a REALLY big weekend. He was cast in a kids speaking role for our local community theater's production of "Get Smart," which had its opening weekend this past Friday. AND he had his very first ever experience as an altar server at our parish's 5 pm vigil Mass for the 2nd Sunday of Advent!

Henry in character ;-)

 

 

I was really worried about the play, because Henry is a more reserved child. On top of that, he has struggled with a speech disfluency (commonly known as a stutter) for a number of years now, and so this was a big undertaking for him. That usually is only an issue (when it even is an issue, which isn't all the time) in conversational speech, so I was cautiously optimistic for reciting memorized lines. And indeed, he did GREAT. We are all very proud of Henry. Going to all of the rehearsals, memorizing lines, helping out with scene changes, performing his role...that's a lot for an 11 year old. Very impressive!

And right before the Saturday show, he had his inauguration as an altar server. :0 Mike and I were beaming with pride as Henry made his way down the aisle as a candle bearer in the opening processional. He was shepherded carefully by a more experienced server, and he performed all of his duties perfectly. In a totally surprise move, we were asked by one of the ushers to bring up the gifts during the Mass, so the whole thing was just one big warm and fuzzy. Henry told me that he loved serving at the Mass and that it made the time fly by. ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing him thrive in this role throughout the year.

On Sunday, while Henry was performing at his matinee, Anne and I made our annual pilgrimage to see "The Nutcracker."

All dressed up and ready to go selfie :-)

Anne seemed much more into the story this year, and I REALLY enjoyed sharing it with her. We also did a bit of Nutcracker-related shopping, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, spent FAR too much on glittery wooden nutcracker dolls and marzipan Christmas tree ornaments. You only get to do it once a year, right? ;-)

Anne posing with creepy animatronic reindeer during the shopping portion of our excursion

"The Nutcracker" is very special to me. We go every year, and it is a tradition that I savor. It is so festive and cheery. I really hope that, even when they get older, I can drag a child/grandchild to it for the rest of my life. They owe me this. :0

After our busy weekend, the kids happily set their shoes out by the hearth last night, and sure enough, St. Nicholas came for an overnight visit!

He always leaves chocolate coins, books, and saint dolls. ;-) This year, Anne received St. Teresa of Calcutta, and Henry got St. Dominic Savio. Anne packed up both St. Teresa and Pete the Cat and toted both to school with her to show her teacher.  So precious.

How was YOUR 2nd Sunday of Advent, dear reader? I would love to hear from you. *beams*

Of tales in excruciation from the portrait studio, annual pilgrimmages to The Nutcracker, & holiday dancing adventures...

Well, happy Monday to you all! I have been grading all morning, and you can only imagine how much fun that is. *sarcasm* But I'm coming up for for a breath of fresh air, and happy to be taking a break. The semester will soon be over, so hope springs eternal!

I had a nice weekend, and I hope you did too. It was busy, to be sure. Got your tea?

I started the weekend as I always do, at dance troupe rehearsal. We have a performance coming up on December 12th, as part of a "12 Days of Dance" enterprise, so we ran through the numbers we're going to be doing there. Then we got all giddy and started created a Christmas choreography that we want to record for our website, in which we dance to a Middle Eastern instrumental version of a traditional Christmas song and balance trays on our heads of assorted holiday decor: Gifts, ornaments, garland, we've all been tasked with getting creative this week and decorating our tray. I mean...is it any wonder why I love these women?! This group has brought more fun and joy into my life than I could have possibly imagined. We're all going to deck ourselves out in red, green or gold costumes for the recording and I can hardly wait.

:0

A super fun trip to the craft store is in my future, yes indeedy. In other news, Saturday morning dawned as the assigned day for our family Christmas photo. As background, we don't often take family photos. We haven't had one taken since before Anne was born, just to give you a sense of the photo-aversion we're working with here. But the grandmothers have been clamoring for a photo, and I thought it would be nice to surprise them for Christmas. Thus, I signed us up for a weekend slot over at our local JC Penney Portrait Studio and demanded that everyone dress nicely and smile. There were some collective dour faces from the children, but we arrived for our appointment looking cute.

Where we encountered...scores upon scores upon score of other people. All with pending appointments. It's a busy time of year for such things, and it was a Saturday morning, so it wasn't a huge surprise. We settled in to wait. And wait. And wait. At various points, children started sobbing. Not ours, thankfully, but you know, the ambiance wasn't exactly a joyful one.

Just when I was starting to contemplate counting the carpet fibers to pass the time, it was our turn. We zoom in. We only wanted one family photo, no extras or costume changes or anything like that, so I figured it would be a few quick snaps and we'd be good to go. And it likely would have been, had we not had Anne with us, the child whose facial expression lent the impression that we had kidnapped her on the way over and forced her to pose for photographs with us. It took some doing to get her to cooperate and smile.

In the end, we would up with a few shots that turned out well, with us all smiling and not blinking. We were there for two and a half hours, but the photo turned out great and it was cheap.

#winning

Later, we went to the vigil Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent, since our Nutcracker tickets interfered with our usual Sunday Mass time. And after we got home and had dinner, the kids put their shoes out by the hearth, in anticipation of St. Nicholas's feast day. And in the morning, da da DA!

St. Nicholas came over for a visit. :)

Each kid got a book, a saint and some chocolate. Henry has a small St. Nicholas tucked into his shoe, and Anne has Our Lady of Guadalupe. Henry keeps his saint dolls carefully up on a shelf, all lined up, while Anne puts her in baby cribs, sleeps with them in her bed where they are constantly rolling onto the floor, and generally hauls them around to watch TV with her or go on errands tucked into one of her many purses. Lots of adventures with the saints, to be sure.

Also on Sunday morning, we had our annual trip to see The Nutcracker, performed by a local ballet. I LOVE this tradition and look forward to it each year:

Anne and I dressed & ready for the show...

Henry even wore a tie, how precious is that? (he declined to be photographed ;-)) We headed to the theater, and as we do every year, procured a new nutcracker doll to add to our collection, as well as several sparkly ornaments for the tree. The kids did great for the performance, I just had to endure Anne sitting on my lap for the entire second half, kneading her elbows into my internal organs. It seems that she has an aptitude for this talent both inside and outside of the womb.

So that was our busy weekend. Now I'm in Grading Purgatory, but I'm offering it up for all of you. ;-) How was your 2nd Sunday of Advent, dear reader?

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. :)

Advent feast days: adding in some new traditions this year...

Hello all! Tomorrow is the feast of St. Nicholas, and so I thought I'd commandeer the opportunity to talk about some new things I'm doing this Advent. Related to this endeavor, I will soon be reviewing the first in a series of books about the liturgical year, which focuses on the Advent & Christmas seasons. That post will be up on Tuesday December 17th, so keep an eye out for it! There will also be a giveaway opportunity for the book in question! There are additional volumes that I will review as well, the second of which covers Epiphany and Lent. So excited!!

Ok anyway, I get all crazy when I talk about the liturgical year, because it's just one of my favorite topics. So where was I? Right! The feast of St. Nicholas. It's tomorrow, and this year we will be celebrating it with the kids.

St. Nicholas, of course, is where our Santa Claus tradition originally comes from, and as I emphasized to Henry when we broke the news last year that Santa Claus isn't real, St. Nicholas very much *was* a real person, a bishop. Known for his generosity, the other major story attached to him is in regards to him dropping off 3 bags of gold coins at the home of a man who was contemplating *selling off his 3 daughters* to make do. Good gracious.

We're going to have the kids leave their shoes out by the fireplace, and I bought little bags of chocolate gold coins to place in them. Henry and I will also read St. Nicholas's story in his saint book.

This is a great book, by the way. The stories are written for children' Henry's age (intermediate readers, age 8), and have lots of details that will capture their attention. I bought him the first volume, which begins with the January feasts, through June, to put in his stocking.

Ok, back to St. Nick. I'm also going to put out a small book for each child, as a gift. Yesterday, at Catholic All Year, Kendra drew my attention to a few Advent books for children, one of which concerns St. Nicholas:

The Miracle of St. Nicholas

Although it won't arrive in time for the feast day, I currently have this in my Amazon shopping cart. This Prime shipping speed is turning me into a salivating book hoarder. It will come by Monday, and I will enjoy reading it with Anne leading up to Christmas. I may have also added a wood St. Nicholas doll to my shopping cart. I'm admitting nothing.

Next Friday, December 13th, is the feast of St. Lucy, who is a favorite of Hank's. I think it's the plate of eyes that she's carrying in her hand. :0

While I was adding the St. Nicholas book to my cart (*innocent look*) Amazon "recommended" to me the following:

Lucia, Saint of Light

 

Even though Hank already reads chapter books, and this seems targeted to kids a few years younger than him, I actually think he will love this book. The reviews noted that it's for school aged kids, definitely too difficult for toddlers and preschoolers to understand, and when I mentioned a St. Lucy book to Hank last night, he gasped in joy. He loves her. This is also in my cart. *shifty look*

 

The tradition on the feast of St. Lucy, in Hank's words (since we have read her story in his various saint books at least a dozen times):

 

"So, the youngest daughter, that's Anne, right? She should wake us up on that day wearing a crown of lit candles. Carrying coffee and special sweet rolls."

 

Yeeeaahhhhh. So, we're not going to be following the St. Lucy tradition to the letter. Or, at least until we can trust Anne not to start a fire. But I'd like to look into baking some special rolls for that morning. 

Oh. And while I was shopping, Amazon had to go and recommend this:

The Legend of the Pointsettia

 

I mean, do they have no shame? I see that the book is about a little Mexican girl's devotion to the Christ Child, and references Our Lady of Guadalupe, feast day of December 12th!!!! 

 

Right, it's in my cart. I'm planning to checkout before I leave work. :0

 

I'm very excited about what we have planned from now until Christmas. We have done family Advent activities for many years, but this year I am really feeling the *Advent* message, rather than focusing on Christmas long before that actual celebration. And I've been very annoying about telling other people about Advent too, and how fabulous it is, and how they should get in on a piece of the action.

 

It's Advent fever I'm telling you! :)