Quiet Wintry Afternoons

It has been so delightful to see such wintry sights here!  Enjoy a few with us!

Hope you're all enjoying a blessed and beautiful Christmas season!  Most of our snow has melted and gone, but I can't help enjoying the sights of the past few days again! 

Today was a clean-up day - putting away, vacuuming a few corners, a fun rearranging of a child's room upstairs.  This afternoon has been delightfully quiet - Rob and the two older children went to the farm to do some barn work while the little two slept, the puppies slept, and I....well...I curled up in front of a cozy fire with a cup of cafe' au lait in hand - so warming - staring at a pile of utterly inviting and delicious books and delights I received for Christmas!  My biggest dilemma?  Which to immerse myself in first?

Decision:  The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe.

Followed by indecision:  Management in the Home by Lillian Gilbreth, Orpha Mae Thomas, & Eleanor Clymer.  (Are you familiar with Cheaper by the Dozen, based on the Gilbreth family?  Lillian Gilbreth, the author of the book, is the mother of "the dozen", and her ideas are remarkably practical and inspiring to me!)

Such happy dilemmas!  Hope you're all enjoying a little of the same!  Warm fires...family time...and the delights and joys of this holy season!

Christmas Joys

A blessed and holy Christmas season to all of you!

:: :: DECORATING THE TREE :: ::

Last weekend, we enjoyed a fantastic day at my folk's home.  The kids leant their creative arranging skills to Nanny and Papa's Christmas tree and the resulting decor brought smiles to all our faces.  Enjoy!

The Doodlebug and two tiny treasured Santa ornaments - one for each hand.  She was captivated by their diminutive size.

 
Sparkly entertains us, though some are able to remain focused on their symmetrical assessment of the lights being strung on the Christmas tree.

Nanny and Papa arranging the tree skirt...with help.

It's a team effort when it comes to making sure the lights are hung just-so!

Papa and his little duckling.

The little duckling with her obvious preference for grouping like objects!  LOL!

Peanut!

I can still smell that fresh evergreen tree!  What a wonderful day with family!

:: :: CHRISTMAS EVE :: ::

Peanut receiving a gift from his brother.  Sparkly gave his little buddy $2 and a few football cards.  :)

Sweet Pea and the Doodlebug unwrapping a gift -- my, but it's hard to get that Doodle to sit still for anything...much less a picture!

The boys receive Remote Control stunt trucks.

Treasured reading time before bed on Christmas Eve.

:: :: GINGER and NUTMEG :: ::

Two new puppies were in the kid's stockings this year so I thought I'd introduce them!

These two pups are sisters from a litter which is a happy mix of German Shepherd and Yellow Lab (though I don't see much yellow lab, do you?  LOL!).  Rob picked them up on Christmas Eve and brought them in to a delighted and surprised group of kids.

Rob and I had been tossing names for the puppies around for a bit.  "Ginger" and "Nutmeg" were my favorite picks, but Rob was concerned that "Nutmeg" sounded too much like "Nut-Man" which we sometimes call "Peanut" (our 6 year old).  So...the puppies were to be named HOLLY and IVY unless we could come up with something else.  However, Rob had a change of heart at the last minute; he was pretty convinced that the pups should be named GINGER and NUTMEG.  And so they were...

:: :: CHRISTMAS MORNING :: ::

New cowboy boots for our FARMGIRL!

New harmonica for the blues boy!

A few old toys become new.

A treasured wooden knife kit

:: :: WHITE CHRISTMAS :: ::

We awoke this morning to find between 4" - 5" of snow covering everything in silvery white.  It was beautiful, and a true gift!  We rarely see a White Christmas here!

Look closely...can you see the snowball sailing through the air towards an unsuspecting Sparkly who is busily rolling his snowman?  LOL!  

MORE snowball fun!

Happy faces.

:: :: HOSANNA IN EXCELSIS :: ::

For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

~ Alleluia ~

Toward Living Advent & Christmas

History has always been intriguing to me, and liturgical history, so relevant to my daily life and domestic church, is even more so.  Liturgical history is vivid, sometimes surprising and fascinating.  I enjoy the context.  There is a depth and richness to our faith that is not only intriguing historically speaking, but offers a sense of belonging to a larger family, of belonging to the Mystical Body of Christ.  Connecting to those traditions and customs of our Church anchors a family to the beautiful, rich, meaningful traditions of our Church family, the Communion of Saints.

I have enjoyed learning about so many of the rich meanings, customs and Traditions of our Church for the seasons of Advent and Christmas.  Over the years, I have penned notes here and there in notebooks and on post-its.  My Advent booklist was in one place, and everything else was...well...everywhere.  This year, I decided to bring everything together -- all of my notes, ideas, crafts, prayers, books, the Feasts of the season, and the rich history I so enjoyed learning about -- everything together in one working & living document.

As a living document, this will change; I'll add to it as I learn more, and of course the dates will change slightly each year as the beginning of Advent changes...but the content is there.  Having it all together in one place has been so helpful and serves as a useful reference and tool.  I thought I'd share it with you in case you were interested.

There are 2 links below, one is a pdf document and the other is a Word document.  If it's useful, you can edit either to reflect the book choices for your family. I'm warning you - this document is 19 pages long...more like a mini-Advent-book!  LOL!!  You're surely not surprised are you?  LOL!!

Toward Living Advent & Christmas - pdf
Toward Living Advent & Christmas - Word (to convert this to a Word document much of the formatting was lost/changed.)
Edited to add:  I built this is in Pages.  If you have Pages for mac (a word processing program similar to Microsoft Word), email me and I'll send you a copy of the Pages program for you to edit for your own family.                  

Resources

The following are the resources I used to compile Toward Living Advent & Christmas.  All of them (except The Christmas Book) are out of print so their availability may fluctuate:

• The Christmas Book by Father Francis Weiser  (This book has been reprinted by Neumann Press)
• The Holyday Book by Father Francis Weiser
• Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs by Father Francis Weiser
• The Twelve Days of Christmas by Elsa Chaney
• Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp
• Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger
• Crusade: the Story of the Bible Retold for Children by the Maryknoll Sisters

Advent & Christmas Booklist

• Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer
• Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham (3 volume set)
• The Twenty Miracles of St. Nicholas by Bernarda Bryson
• Saint Nicholas by Julie Stegmeyer
• Saints for Young Readers by the Daughters of St. Paul
• The Way to Bethlehem by Inos Biffi
• The Real Santa Claus by Marianna Mayer
• Mary, Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola
• The Way to Bethlehem by Inos Biffi
• Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
• Our Lady's Feasts (OOP) by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy
• Once Upon a Time Saints by Ethel Pochocki
• The Donkey's Dream by Barbara Helen Berger
• The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola
• Hanna's Christmas (OOP) by Melissa Peterson (Wiley)
• Lucia, Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
• Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story by Janet Shaw
• The Little Juggler (OOP) by Barbara Cooney  -- my favorite version of this story!!
• The Juggler of Notre Dame (OOP) by Mary Fidelis Todd
• The Clown of God by Tomie de Paola
• Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida
• The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie de Paola
• The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
• My Christmas Book by Lee Mero
• The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
• Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden
• Santa's Toy Shop a Little Golden Book (I know...one of these things is not like the other...one of these things isn't the same..but it's a part of our cherished collection, and therefore a part of our reading)
• The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola
• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
• The Three Gifts of Christmas by Jennie Bishop
• Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey by Robert Byrd
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Tasha Tudor
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Jan Brett
• The Nativity by Ruth Sanderson
• The True Meaning of Christmas by Fulton Sheen
• Good King Wenceslaus by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Good King Wenceslaus illustrated by Jamichael Henterly
• The Twelve Days of Christmas by Jan Brett
• Mary, Mother of Jesus by Mary Joslin & Alison Wisenfeld
• A Story of Mother Elizabeth Seton by Brother Ernest
• The Gifts of the Magi by Carolyn Vaughn
• The Last Straw by Frederick H. Thury
• The Trees Kneel at Christmas by Maud Hart Lovelace
• Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp
• I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge
• Little Lives of the Great Saints by John O'Kane Murray
• The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke
• Wonders of the Holy Name by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan
• Christmas and the Saints (OOP) by Hertha Pauli
• This Way to Christmas by Ruth Sawyer
• The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff

Advent and Christmas Poetry

• Welcome Christmas! A Garland of Poems (OOP) by Anne Thaxter Eaton

I would ask you to keep in mind that this shared resource is meant to be a tool.  Use it as it fits your family.  Our family will spend some years deeply immersed in the richness of the ideas shared on this list and other years will find us pulling out just a few favorites.  I trust you will do the same in your homes.

May your Advent preparation and Christmas rejoicing be blessed, living and fruitful.