Christmas Trains with Grandma

Today the boys and Grandma and I went to the botanical gardens to see the Christmas train exhibit.It was beautiful!
Today and tomorrow our weather is so warm that the snow is melting and everything is all wet, melty, mushy, and very foggy.Quite a nice finale for 2010, I would say! We are looking forward to a weekend of relaxing and celebrating the beginning of 2011!

Sledding!

Home for the Holidays

Every once in a while during the holidays, I get lonely and blue about the fact that I'm so far from home (Texas) with most of our relatives more than a thousand miles away. My entire family--except for my mom, of course--is in Texas, and two of Bill's siblings live in Philadelphia; we rarely get to see them. When I want to start really feeling sorry for myself, I mope around about my kids' startling shortage of grandparents--with my dad and both Bill's parents deceased, it makes us extra thankful to have my mom here with us.

What a contrast from my own childhood, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents who had grown up together from childhood. There certainly was no shortage of relatives around for the holidays in those early years!

But now, here I am in the frozen arctic Midwest, far from home and family. If I let myself think about it too much, I could get sad about the fact that our holidays regularly consist of just our party of seven, plus one grandma. Sometimes we get Bill's sister and her husband and daughter, and the kids love it when we do. But mostly, we're on our own for making and celebrating family traditions.


And you know what? It's all good. I could get all lonely, blue, and sad about our little party of seven--but when I start going down that path, I just put that out of my head. Our own little family has plenty of traditions of our own, and we're making memories that will be every bit as special to my kids as mine are to me. My kids, after all, aren't comparing our Christmases to the ones I had forty years ago in Texas. Ours are all they've got; and to me it seems that things are pretty awesome around here. To tell you the truth, this year things have been especially beautiful and--hard to say this but--perfect.
I think, when it comes to relatives, that we each have to just make the best of whatever hand we've been dealt. I never would have imagined that my kids would have such a shortage of grandparents, or that I'd live so far off on my own, but that's the way God has set it up, and what else can I do but be thankful and happy? What a miracle, after all, that our party of seven is intact! I think losing my dad when I was 18 has helped me not to take the family I have for granted. I know it makes me more aware that each day we have together is precious.Sometimes I do dream of having a houseful of extended family for Christmas. Maybe someday we'll move back to Texas and that will be so. But this year, for the first time, I began to foresee a day in the future when I'll surely have that houseful of family. It will come in another decade or two (aka the blink of an eye), when I'm the grandma, and my house is full of the next generation. And isn't carrying things on to the next generation what family traditions are really all about?

Merry Christmas!

He's Coming!

"Behold God incarnate! How beautiful it has been to reflect on the very profound mystery of our Savior's incarnation! ...

"Finally, someday in heaven above, we will grasp it fully. There we will celebrate with an incomparable delight this great feast of Christmas."

~ St. Francis de Sales

My Sweets Making Sweets

Christmas baking has always kind of just eluded me.

I am always humbled by people (like my sister-in-law, the amazing master baker and goddess of all things domestic) who can pull together those incredibly beautiful cookie trays like this:


What must that take, I've always thought, like three or four days of straight baking? How can anyone pull that off while simultaneously doing other pre-Christmas activities?This year I guess I figured it out.We have made eight or so different kinds of cookies lately, as well as a huge vat of cranberry-almond-orange caramel popcorn, and it wasn't even hard.Messy, for sure, but not hard.I think it has to do with not being pregnant, not having anyone under 12 months old in our family , and not having just moved into our house during the last three months. Imagine that!Oh yes, and the fact that MRD and KLD can pretty much do everything by themselves now. Here's a small sample of their beautiful creations:
I admit I do still have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Christmas baking.
But this year, it's almost all just love.

Early Christmas Present

Tonight was my turn to drive WWD's basketball carpool. It's just far enough away--about 30 minutes--that it's not worth making the round trip twice, so I planned to just hang out at the gym during practice.

Which would give me, I realized, just over an hour to myself. As in--alone. Far from my chore-filled, to-do laden house.

What would I do? Bring a book? Bring my laptop? Catch up on phone calls? Squeeze in a few errands? I was so excited about the sudden empty block on my calendar that I was overwhelmed--stumped as to how to fill this one free hour, on the dark night after the snowy winter solstice, three days before Christmas.

I dropped off the boys, went to fill up my van with gas and wiper fluid (the latter being something I never once did in my entire life before moving to the midwest), and started back to watch practice.

For no particular reason, I decided to take a quick detour through the parking lot of the Catholic church a block away from WWD's practice gym. Just to check it out--peek at their school, that sort of thing.

The church lights were on.

"Cool," I thought, peering through the church's glass doors from inside my warm van. I'll just say a little "hello" prayer while I'm so near to the Lord.

I even thought I could see the red tabernacle candle, but it turned out to be my brake lights reflecting in the church window.

Then I saw it. The monstrance on the altar. Could it be? Yes. Right there, in the small-town church, on this dark solstice night, miles away from the retail frenzy that has filled the rest of my week...Eucharistic Adoration.


An hour of Adoration, all alone. Quiet. Peace. A whole, uninterrupted Rosary, all by myself, without the phone ringing and without me falling asleep after about the first decade. And then...more peace.

My dear sweet infant Lord Jesus, how can my family's Christmas celebration ever be a worthy birthday party for You, the most holy and amazing gift the world has ever known? How can we ever, ever comprehend God's glorious plan for mankind or His eternal and infinite love for each of His precious creatures?

As St. Paul explained to those long-ago Corinthians, "For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know as I am known."

And as St. Matthew wrote, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Tonight, He sure knew what I needed...more of Himself!!

Could there be a better Christmas present than a sweet, silent hour with my Lord? I felt like I got a little peek at the Nativity itself!

O Come Let Us Adore Him
Christ the Lord!

Quick Takes Friday

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!
It turns out that this week's Takes are not really all so Quick. Some are actually quite long. Sorry!

~ 1 ~
I have no idea what to get my husband for Christmas. I never have any ideas. He is the most frugal person in the universe, never buys anything for himself, and regularly returns the gifts I choose (even an IPod, a while back). I'm resorting to the strategy of giving him several gifts that are so small, they are not worth the trouble of returning. Sad, isn't it?

But seriously--not to be too overly cynical here--most adults don't really need Christmas gifts, do they? Bill and I are always fixated on getting each other things we need--is this the right strategy? After all, there is an entire genre of retail establishments--Sharper Image, Brookstone, Hammacher Schlemmer, practically everything in that SkyMall magazine in your seatback pocket--that sell absolutely nothing that anyone would ever need. These stores exist, I believe, because no one really has any good idea what to get their husband for Christmas.

~ 2 ~
I keep re-learning the ever-shocking concept that when I eat healthy food, I feel good, and when I eat junk, I feel like junk. Amazing corollary, that. In the former category, I can't wait to try this recipe.

~ 3 ~
I think this is WWD's best school year ever. He loves school; he's appropriately challenged which in turn makes him highly motivated; he's having a great time with his friends; he's got great grades; and he's doing a really good job of managing his schoolwork independently, even with a really busy extracurricular schedule). I am so thrilled--this is finally, really, truly where WWD belongs. (For now, anyway.)

~ 4 ~
I realized all that stuff about WWD a week or so ago when I was in a conference with both of KLD's teachers, about her math. We were talking about the school's math curriculum, discussing how it transferred into middle school, and I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I hadn't laid eyes on one single scrap of math work from WWD this whole school year. He made an A, so I guess that's okay, right?

KLD, on the other hand, is slogging through the harrowing nightmare that is this 4th grade math curriculum. What a mess! The information seems to be presented in quite a roundabout way--several different methods to solve each type of problem, a requirement to "write to explain" in words how you got your answers, and lots and lots of estimating answers before working the actual problem.

The faculty assures us that this is the latest thinking in how to teach math, but all I see is my daughter, who has always loved math best of all, starting to struggle with it for the first time, and taking all evening to complete her homework because the book is so hard to follow.

I haven't made up my mind what to do about this--I can always just supplement her math at home with Singapore, but my real concern is that this gobbledygook math is going to ruin her math confidence and burn her out on math. In my own experience, this can be a big deal. I wish I could opt her out of the school math, and teach her at home. If the public schoolers can opt out of sex ed, don't you think I should be able to opt my daughter out of math? We'll see, I suppose. But in the meantime...got any advice?

~ 5 ~
My beautiful budding musicians have been filling my house--and the town, a little bit--with the sounds of Christmas! Yesterday morning was the school concert, featuring MRD on clarinet and both MRD and KLD on piano, along with their friends. Last weekend WWD joined them for was their quite-festive piano recital. And MRD both sang a solo and played her clarinet in the school Christmas pageant this week. I am so proud of their hard work on their music--and so glad that they are enjoying it so much!

~ 6 ~
On a much more somber note, as I'm sitting down to write my Christmas cards this year, I've realized that my list is shorter than last year by 4 people who have died in 2010. (That doesn't even include Bill's friend Jim, who died tragically in his forties last January.) Unbelievable. What a year--I suppose I'm ready to put 2010 in the past! May God bless our dear ones and grant them eternal rest.

~ 7 ~
You know what? Bill's job being eliminated last August was--no kidding--the best thing that could have happened. He is like a whole different person without that nasty job from H-E-doublehockeysticks, and now I have my husband back. He is (mostly) happy, relaxed, enjoying the kids, and we are having fun hanging out while the kids are at school. Too much fun...as in, we can't keep this up forever. At least one of us has got to start bringing in some cash pretty soon, methinks!

One more delicious week until Christmas!! Enjoy!!
And go see Jen for everyone else's great Quick Takes posts!

My Second Favorite Thing About Catholic School

Their darling Christmas pageant!
It was adorable and everyone did such a great job!




P.S. My first favorite thing about our Catholic school...the kids go to Mass twice a week, one of which is a special Mass just for them where they participate as readers, gift-bearers, etc. I like lots of things about the kids' school--Mass and celebrating real-live Christian holidays top my list!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Look who stopped by our place last weekend!

Not sure if you can see Santa's license plate: "IMSANTA" (Of course!)

To Wii or Not To Wii

This is the time of year when, desperate for Christmas gift ideas for our family-of-way-too-much-stuff, Bill and I always kick around the idea of getting a Wii for the kids. I think Wiis are really cool, and I know my kids would have fun with one. So far, though, we've held out and resisted getting any kind of video game at all.

My rationale is simple: As I tell my kids, life is short. Each hour is precious. I feel strongly about this. I truly believe that just about anything my kids might dream up to do to fill their time--including lying out in the yard, looking at cloud-shapes or watching grass grow--is a better use of their time than staring at a screen of any sort. (Ironic, isn't it, that I'm spending my free time staring at a screen right this minute--but never mind that.) But seriously--as it is, we barely have enough hours in the day just to get everyone fed and all the homework done around here; the last thing I need is one more thing on the kids' to-do lists.

This year, though, we're closer than ever to getting a Wii. Wiis are really amazing, don't you think? So many cool games! And the interactivity sure wipes out a big part of the usual video game objection--with a Wii, the kids can exercise a lot more than just their thumbs. Besides, I kind of think that I would really like Wii Fit.

So without further ado, here's the list of pros and cons as I see them. Got any advice or anything to add? Help, really! :)

In Favor of a Wii:
- Fun
- Would make a good Christmas gift
- Good thing for the kids to do when friends come over
- Don't be so uptight, Mom!

Against a Wii:
- The kids will totally fight about whose turn it is, at all times.
- Even when they play a PC game on a CD or website, they exhibit irrational behavior, including lots of fighting and meltdowns when their turn is over.
- Video games are just a wee bit addictive. (If you're not convinced about this, just try playing Tetris for one hour--and then stopping.) I firmly believe that the behaviors just noted above result from my kids experiencing media withdrawal. Frankly, I'm scared about expanding this unpredictable drug into our household, times 5.
- One more thing to lose or break
- They should just read a book; there are more books in the world than they can read in their entire lifetime.
- There is plenty of evidence that video games are bad for kids and families.
- I'm afraid that video games will harm their imagination and creativity.
- We. Don't. Have. Any. Extra. Time.
- Life is short.

Okay, okay, I made up my own mind again, apparently. Thanks; I'm glad we had this little chat.

Celebrating Our Lady

Check out my son, the Bishop!!

Bishop Zumarraga, that is, in a re-enactment of the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego, that WWD's school produced Friday night for our parish. The play was part of a big fiesta celebrating Our Lady's appearance to Juan Diego on December 12, 1531.

Since JPD chose St. Juan Diego as his costume for the All Saints' Day party this year, we've been studying the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe in depth around here. What a beautiful, hopeful story!

When I became Catholic, I just had no idea about Marian Apparitions. Honestly, for a long time I thought they seemed a bit strange. But now that I've been blessed to learn more about them, they are absolutely amazing! God is really, truly, still so much at work in our world in every way, big and small.

And now, as of this week, the first-ever Marian apparition in the U.S. has been officially approved--in Wisconsin! I think I see a road trip in our near future!

Why was it easier for my Protestant self to believe that God appeared to Moses on Mt. Sinai, or in the burning bush, or to Noah, or an Angel to St. Joseph in his dreams, than to believe that Our Lady would bring a message to someone in contemporary times? I think the contemporary times part is the difficulty. The Old Testament seems so long ago, so fuzzy, so pre-literate, that it seems easier to accept, even in a sort of non-literal, allegorical way. After all, we're taught those Old Testament stories from birth--my babies' nursery was even decorated with a sweet little Noah's Ark motif. But I haven't seen Our Lady of Fatima bedding at Babies 'R Us lately, have you? And besides, thinking about things from a sola scriptura viewpoint does make it a bit difficult to think about anything God might do after New Testament times, I suppose.

Another stumbling block, of course, is that quite often since the time of Jesus, God speaks to us using the Blessed Virgin as a messenger, and naturally this is the part I didn't understand as a Protestant. I'm still in amazed wonder, learning about Catholic Marian theology. With her freely given consent, God used Mary to bring Christ into our world, and He's still using her to bring us to him today.

Now that I'm Catholic, I've learned about so many post-New Testament direct interventions by God in our world through the centuries. Fatima, Lepanto, St. Dominic, Lourdes, Guadalupe, St. Faustina...and on and on. What I love is that they are so relevant, so hope-filled, so instructive, so far beyond what I could ever imagine. Clearly, God's plan of salvation for us--begun the split second that Adam and Eve tasted the apple so long ago--is still unfolding. Miracles are happening everywhere--even in Wisconsin (yippee!)!!

Quick Takes Friday

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~
We've got snow! And lots more on the way, apparently. I am okay with this--even, possibly, happy about it.

~ 2 ~
We're going do our Christmas decorating this weekend. Thanksgiving weekend always seems a bit early, but if I don't do it then, it seems that December is half over before we get to do it. It is getting harder and harder to catch us all home at the same time these days. We got the tree last Friday night, and put it in a bucket of water in the garage where it promptly FROZE. So now it's in the first-floor bathroom shower, still in its bucket. Any minute now, we'll set it up in the living room for decorating tomorrow.

~ 3 ~
Today MPD and I will be heading to the middle kids' school for Mass and "Holiday Lunch." I always wonder: when they're having an actual Mass, and it is an actual Catholic school, why not just call it a Christmas lunch? I mean, seriously, people.

After lunch I'm going to bring all 3 kids home early so we can spend the afternoon baking cookies. What a rebel I am--teaching them to play hookey to do Christmas baking! Reminds me (okay, sort of) of when I skipped class in college to squeeze in a manicure before something-or-other. See--I've always been a total flake.

~ 4 ~
Last night Bill gave me my Christmas present early...a digital videocamera! Hooray!! Our previous one, weighing in at about 10 pounds, always dated us as the parents who had our first child (and therefore, first videocamera) in 1998. It is time for an upgrade, and we needed it early in order to film some cool stuff coming up in the next week or so around here. Stay tuned to see the cool stuff!!

(Disclaimer: I'm not in the mood to put family videos on this blog--but you'll see photos of the cool stuff, as always.)

~ 5 ~
What to make for Christmas dinner...turkey or roast beef? Turkey or roast beef? Thanksgiving is always turkey, of course, and around here, Easter is always ham. So I'm feeling like a bit of roast beast for Christmas, but it sure is hard not to have a do-over of that yummy Thanksgiving meal. We always have this dilemma. What's on the menu at your place--got any ideas to share?

~ 6 ~
Hey! I (finally) joined the health club! It's great to (finally) be working out again, and MPD really LOVES it there. (I'm thinking this will be his 'preschool'--oh the poor deprived 5th child!) BUT...between the new workout schedule and the unemployed husband, I am REALLY getting nothing done around here. I am behind on everything. Maybe it's just because of, you know, December.

~ 7 ~
Speaking of December, I was so calm and organized a few weeks ago, that I was smugly thinking "Holiday stress? Not me, man." This week, that's all out the window. The real reason I'm taking the kids out of school early today is that I don't have time to drive back up there twice--for lunch and to pick them up 2 hours later. Practically every half-day block from now until December 24 has at least one thing scheduled in it--sometimes several things, and one thing that is an all-day basketball tournament over 3 hours away. Falalalalah-lalalalah. Most of it is really fun stuff, though--and just 2 more weeks until Christmas!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Happy St. Nick's!

Saturday Evening Blog Post

This weekend I'm joining in the Saturday Evening Blog Post roundup.
Come on over to check out some great blog posts from November!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Christmas!