Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve found us at Mass to celebrate the birth our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who entered into human history as a very poor, and no doubt, adorable newborn baby!

Now that our youngest child is 9, we go to the late night Mass celebrated at 10 pm. Advent is about preparation and no Carols are sung during that time. The Church BEGINS the celebration of Christmas at this time in contrast to the retailers who END the season on this day. Our large choir led a full church in singing O Liitle Star of Bethlehem, The First Noel, Joy to the World and other carols. After Communion, the very moving and beautiful Silent Night was sung by a man and woman with the accompaniment of just a guitar by candlelight and it was very still and peaceful.
Although I like them all, my favorite Christmas Carol is:

                          O Holy Night
                          The stars are gently shining.
                          It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
                          Long lay the world, in sin and error pining,
                         'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

                          A thrill of hope,
                          The weary world rejoices,
                          For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn.
                          Fall on your knees,
                          Oh hear the angel's voices.

                          O night divine, O night, when Christ was born.
                          O night divine, O night, O night divine....

After Mass, we came home for eggnog and cookies and all of us brought out the gifts. That's when you know your family is growing up! Bedtime soon followed with hopes of a long winter's nap!
                       

Yuletide Visits

On Christmas Eve morning and just before we visited Greg and Cindi, we delivered our little treat tins to our dear friends.

We exchanged goody baskets of cookies, candies and other special treats to add to our feast. I do love how folks do this. What could be better than a homemade gift of something delicious to eat? Each family makes their own special type of Christmas goody and shares that with friends and neighbors. In this way, each household now has more variety and abundance than they could make for themselves.

Wishes for a very Merry Christmas were exchanged as the actual day came closer.

We also went to visit Grandma Dolly at the rehab and brought her gifts and treats to her. I very much enjoyed this series of visits and was thrilled because it was a family affair.

Nutcracker Christmas

We made it a point to visit Greg and Cindi  at their house to see all of their decorations. Last year, we missed seeing their tree and didn't want that to happen again. It is always a treat to be with Little Handsome at his home where he is most comfortable.

Grandma V. gave a nutcracker to Greg when he was a boy. That started a Nutcracker collection which is so pleasant to see and is often added to by way of Christmas gifts. Many people have special collections which they only display at Christmas time. I like that idea because it reduces clutter and is more distinctive for its annual  appearance..

The other thing about collections is that one always thinks of the collector when similar items are seen!

Handsome was all fired up and full of energy!

Three generations of guys watch Cindi wind up the Jack-in-the-Box.

Sam demonstrated the latest song he was teaching himself which I think on this day was "Wanted" by Hunter Hayes.

This competition is heating up! Who will be taller?

I really enjoyed seeing the workbench that Greg is building out of poplar wood hand milled by a family friend. When he mentioned that he wanted to get rid of the refrigerator in his garage I got excited because I am in the market for just such a thing. Not this one, though. Opening the door, he showed me that although it no longer works, it makes for terrific paint storage!

We really enjoyed this visit to spend time with our family in their beautiful home.

Handy Tape Dispenser

The boys wrapped their own Christmas gifts for their siblings and parents which they had purchased at The Dollar Store, as is our tradition. Before our children get a job and their own money, they each receive one dollar per family member to pick something out at the modern day "General Store", the Dollar Store!  We always repeat an anecdote that happened to Aunt Nancy. She was once in a store like this and noticed that NO prices were marked. She kept going up to the cashier to ask " How much is this?" She figured it out after the third time he said "A dollar." It is amazing how many useful and necessary items can be found at these stores!

Sam very cleverly improvised a tape dispenser fix because someone threw out the center roller when the last of the tape was gone.

Using coffee mugs, oranges, clothespins, and a pencil, he got that tape to roll smoothly so that he and John could wrap their gifts!

Preparing the Gifts

Advent is a time of spiritual preparation for the birth of our Savior. For Mothers, it is also a time of intense preparation of a practical nature. I prepare our gifts for Christmas in the same order every year. The first gifts I think about are for my extended family and friends. I then do my Godchildren, my adult children and their spouses, my grandchildren and then my children at home. Since Larry and I buy our own gifts, mine are pretty close to the top of the list as well!

Meg and I made another afternoon of assembling our extended family and friends' gifts. I had purchased 30 kitchen towels on clearance at Target for 2 dollars apiece. The Palmolive was 1 dollar per bottle. Starting in  early October, I was able to crochet 35 "dish cloths" which I thoroughly enjoyed doing in the evenings.

Meg and I had the pleasure of choosing a dish cloth, a towel and a soapsuds bottle in colors that matched, and tied the three together with Christmas ribbon. We consulted the list and picked colors to suit each recipient. All of my brothers' and sisters' families and the married young adult couples received a gift as well as our good friends. After my towels were gone, I simply purchased some more Palmolive and wrapped a dishcloth around it to give to some of our "bachelor" friends.

I LOVE how my extended family celebrates Christmas. Each family prepares about 10 identical gifts that are modest in price, (mine were only three dollars plus a little time), which are usually fun, useful or whimsical. One gift goes to the entire family! We also give a gift to our individual Godchild(ren) which helps to cement that relationship and show that particular child how much they are loved! This simple method has really worked for us because it is not expensive and requires only one "choice" to be made in gift selection. For us, it is always about being together and the "stuff", although a delightful treat, secondary.

Ornament Making

Meg dropped by one afternoon before Christmas with lots of supplies for the craft we learned to do at our Homeschool Brunch. It was great fun to make these button ornaments as we chatted.

We made five complete balls of buttons. Each one used up a lot of the supplies. It was satisfying to create something so methodically. The whole thing was spontaneous!

Patience was able to put the pins in all by herself!

Modge Podge and Brunch

Our homeschool group had a Brunch get together on the First Friday of December.  In addition to sharing a pot-luck breakfast after Mass, we had crafts for the kids to make. I brought these wooden cigar boxes that I bought for a dollar a piece at a yard sale. I had 14 of them. Fancy decorative paper, old Christmas cards and pictures of religious subjects were available for the kids to decorate their boxes, both inside and out with.

 Modge Podge is a product that I was introduced to here and is used as a glue and smoothing agent to make a decoupage effect, securing the pictures to the box with a varnish like surface.

Everyone brought something to share and there was plenty of food.

This year, our group has taken advantage of coffee to go from Dunkin Donuts. We get a couple boxes of coffee and 2 boxes of hot chocolate for the kids. It's delicious and so easy.

Our next craft was making ornaments by pinning colored buttons onto styrofoam balls with decorative straightpins.

This activity was delightfully time consuming allowing everyone to stand around the table talking and working to create something beautiful.

Five minutes before we left for the church hall, I thought to invite Meg and the kids to see if they wanted to join us. They met us there and had a great time making Christmas crafts and having breakfast with so many nice families.

Mexican Feast

Our Cooking Club celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe by preparing four dishes for a Mexican Feast.

The twelve children who attended split into four groups. At Station One, they browned the meat for the tacos.

The next Station prepared "Aztec Chocolate", that is homemade hot chocolate from scratch.

The third station was for the taco fixins' prep.Washing lettuce and using the salad spinner,

...dicing tomatoes and onions, and getting the shredded cheese ready to serve.

In the fourth station, the kids made sombreros like the one Juan Diego might have worn by cutting up mozarella sticks and putting a piece on a Pringle chip.

The dessert was made here as well- Holiday pretzels dipped into melted white chocolate and ....

covered with sprinkles. Each group of three children rotated through the stations taking a turn with all the preparations. After the cooking was completed, Allison led a discussion on eight little known facts about Our
Lady of Guadeloupe and her apparition there. Most of the children were very familiar with the story so taking things a step further made for a great discussion. As a group, we prayed The Divine Mercy to remember the Lord's Passion and his unfathomable mercy toward us
Then we ate together and had a wonderful time visiting. Allison and I really enjoy the Cooking Club and have been privileged to spend time sharing our homes, skills and faith with these great kids.

Christmas Parade

We met our friends in front of this local landmark to watch our children in the Christmas parade.

This float was spectacular recreating an Historic House in the area.

I was watching Sam so intently while he played in the band  that I forgot to take a picture but did get one of my friend's son as he marched past our group.

The school mascot came over to give John the high five.

The last float was of course, Santa. We walked up the long hill toward our car, enjoying the night air and being downtown.

The Elf on The Shelf

For an early Christmas gift,  Meg and Jon gave us "The Elf on the Shelf" Kit which contains the elf and a beautifully illustrated story to go with it. The Elf watches the family members during the day. At night he supposedly goes to the North pole to report to Santa how the children are behaving . It is during this time that he is hidden nightly somewhere in the house. In the morning, it is a lot of fun to find him and to see the creative ways he has been hidden. 

Worth pondering is the marvelous good fortune some lucky family is experiencing after ingeniously marketing their very own family tradition. They must be millionaires because this fun game has really caught on with folks across the nation. It is a simple concept and a new tradition that can be enjoyed by each member of the family. The older ones hide him, a new and different place each night and the younger ones try to find him. I am wondering if there is anything fun that we do that could be worth a million bucks if marketed well!

Boney Mallet

Playing football in the frontyard, Sam was injured when the ball hit the top of his middle finger. He complained of a lot of pain and did have some swelling just at the first knuckle. A few days later when the pain continued, we asked our neighbor who is a Sport'sTtrainer with a master's degree in that field to take a look at it. He immediately diagnosed a "Boney mallet finger" which is serious if left untreated. We were able to get him into our local "ortho clinic" and they x-rayed the finger. You can see the little broken bone!

We went right over to occupational therapy where a little splint was handcrafted for him. He must keep the tip of his middle finger level with the rest of the finger at all times. It wants to droop down, and he can't lift it up without the splint. It can't drop even once, or the tendon may come apart and he will have to start the healing process over again. As always, through this whole time of obtaining good medical help for Sam, I was extremely grateful for the terrific medical care we received from all the knowledgeable and friendly providers.

Family Viewing

We took advantage of the "Live" performance of the Sound of Music remake starring the lovely and talented Carrie Underwood, by watching it together as a family. It reminded me a lot of when I was a kid and there was no VCR, DVD, Netflix and Computer Streaming. You only had the opportunity to see The Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz once per year. If you missed it, you had to wait until the following year to see it.

I had read a review that said this remake, as the original had, portrayed the Catholic Church in a very positive light. After watching it, I would totally agree. It spoke about the idea of Vocation as something that God gives to each one of us as the best way to serve him and to bring his love into the world. Maria ( Carrie Underwood) finds that she is not called to the convent at all, but instead, to Mother the captain's seven children, to be a good wife to him and to bring joy and music back into their hurting family. They are surely protected by Divine Providence as they escape in the night out of  Austria in the hands of the Nazis with the help of the Sisters that she knows so well.

 Incidentally, The Sound of Music is based on a very true story and the book about "The Trapp Family Singers" ( something like that) is excellent. This family lived their Catholicism completely. Maria and the captain were blessed with more children to add to their brood and they all worked very hard to help the family. After touring the United States performing to earn their bread, they settled in Stowe, Vermont and bought hundreds of acres. The ski lodge has a fancy restaurant where we once had dinner with my parents, Grandma F. and my cousin, Geraldine.That evening, we met  the very senior Maria von Trapp, perhaps an octogenarian by this time, as she walked around the dining room, introducing herself to each table. As a teen, we cross country skied at this resort with our neighbors and friends. The scenery was so beautiful! Larry and I have visited this rebuilt lodge ( a fire destroyed the original) when we went to Vermont a number of years ago.
Although, I think that only a small portion of this movie was actually filmed "Live", it was delightful to watch such an inspiring and heart-warming program with the kids as a special event.