Christmas Blessings

Joy to the World!

"For all of human history people have been searching for God. The search has expressed itself in the worship of imaginary gods who jealously grasped at power; it has expressed itself in the philosophical idea of an impersonal god who is remote and distant; it has expressed itself in the human attempt at power and self-glorification. And what do we find today? We find that God does not grasp for power, but empties himself of it in order to express his true authority, which springs from love. We find that God does not want to watch us from a distance, but instead has become flesh, i.e., a member of our family...

Blessed are we who celebrate this day as the greatest discovery of all time--the discovery that God, for whom we groped in the darkness, has pierced the darkness with his humanity and has found us. May all who have walked in darkness today welcome the light: Jesus Christ, Emmanuel."

~ Fr. Richard Veras

Merry Christmas!!

"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child." ~ Erma Bombeck

Santa is on his way to make a big stop at our house this year! :)

Merry Christmas to all!! Glory to God in the Highest!!

Retro Thursday

Our 2005 Christmas Card picture (remember this one?). They are growing so much, so fast!

And I can't believe how much KLD and MPD (who is, of course, not born yet in this picture) look alike! They could be twins (6 years apart, of course...)!

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him!

The kids had their school Christmas Pageant Tuesday night. I wish you could have seen it; it was absolutely beautiful and far, far exceeded my expectations! My favorite part was their amazing, gorgeous singing of so many wonderful Christmas carols.
Worth the whole year's tuition, I'd say! :)







In case you're wondering, JPD's a sheep, of course!

Seven (Very) Quick Takes Friday

~ 1 ~
Recently heard at our place: "Some people think their parents are really Santa Claus. But Mom and Dad would NEVER buy all that stuff!"

~ 2 ~
This week our Little Flowers Girls' Club meeting was on Tuesday, the Feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception. I opened our meeting with the Hail Mary prayer, and then asked the girls (who had all been to a special Mass that morning for the feast day) if they could guess why I'd chosen that prayer. KLD's hand shot up. "The feast of the Immaculate Heart!" She proudly answered. What a cutie! (Everyone agreed it had something to do with Mary. Well, they got that part right, anyway!)

~ 3 ~
I am so proud of my sweeties and their Christmas preparations! They are all very busy getting ready, and SO concerned with what they're getting/making for each other--far more than what they're asking Santa for. So sweet--just warms their mom's heart to see their sweet generosity! Really creative ideas too, like a spaceship for JPD out of packing boxes. (Sssshh!)

~ 4 ~
We are pretty excited around here about the Longhorns in the National Championship game. I'm just saying.

~ 5 ~
Speaking of sports, we are in a FRENZY of basketball tournaments for WWD. Our weekends are totally booked. Last Friday night, I took all the kids down to W's tournament; Bill was driving in from a meeting in Chicago and meeting us there. I wish you could have seen how excited MPD was to see his BIG brother on the court with all those other HUGE 5th grade players!! It was floor seats at the NBA to him! He was so proud of WWD; it was just precious. I often think about my uncle's description of my dad, who was his 9-year-older brother--same age gap as WWD and MPD--as "larger than life." It is such an amazing blessing to see how sweet these two almost-ten-years-apart brothers are together! As soon as the first game was over, MPD couldn't wait to climb into W's lap, to show that he was HIS brother:


~ 6 ~
After the snow, came the cold. We're now having single digit high temperatures and wind-chill temps in the sub-zero teens. That 17+ inches of snow is now frozen into a hard pack, everywhere. The garage door did not want to open yesterday morning, and my van doors were frozen shut. I love #7 of Jen's Quick Takes this week--it totally sums up the difference between daily winter life as a Texas Mom vs. a Wisconsin Mom. Sandals, shorts, and t-shirts 9 months of the year!! We are buried in winter gear, and I am so thankful for our new, bigger laundry room which is full of 10 winter boots (as well as regular shoes), 5 pairs of snow pants, more than 20 mittens (each child has at least two pair for when they get wet), random coats and hats and neck gaiters and headbands and...well, you get the picture. And they can't wait to get outside!!

By the way, my big-family frugal mommy wisdom on this issue is that I get black Target snow bibs in all their sizes, so each year they just move up to the next size, all unisex. If they bust the knees, which happens rarely, I just buy more because they're pretty cheap. I also like to buy their coats red or cobalt blue so that they can be unisex and more share-able; this is getting harder to do because Lands' End and other favorite coat suppliers are making things more and more gender-specific! The kids can "express themselves" (whatever) with their hats, gloves, and scarves, which are whatever flavor (Dora, Disney Princesses, Superheroes, Longhorns, Packers, personalized)they're into. So far, this has worked great (this week they were actually laughing about someone at school having pink snow pants--how crazy! ha ha), and keeps our off-season storage of all this gear more manageable too.

~ 7 ~
This morning on Catholic radio I heard the most beautiful description of the story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast days are yesterday and Sunday. Two things are especially striking me about this story this year: It's amazing that this powerful apparition happened at such a critical period of history--the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs--and also, as with so many saints, that God always best uses the most humble souls for His greatest work.

The Blessed Mother's loving words to St. Juan Diego about his uncle's illness are especially precious and so comforting and applicable to all of us:

“Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything."

~~~~~
Lots more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary, as always!

Happy St. Nick's and Christmas Party-ing

Lots of fun stuff last weekend--St. Nick brought five shoe-fulls of candy, we went to a St. Nick's Day party, and party with Grandma at her place. The Christmas season is just getting started around here!

White Christmas, Coming Up!

What a snow day we are having! The TV says we got 17 inches overnight, and my midwestern husband says it is the biggest snowfall he's seen...ever. After spending the morning outside--helping shovel the walks and driveway, then crying about that, then playing--the kids are now curled up having a Christmas movie film festival. I don't think it gets much better than this--oh wait, except I'm about to make them some hot chocolate.

Moving Day: Hello New House!

We've been in the new house almost 3 weeks...still unpacking!! :) These pics are from moving day. It's a bit more orderly now, but still a long way to go...