We completed the nativity set: the kings have arrived!
We colored pictures of the three wise men, as printed out from various sources online (e.g., here). Then I read the Gospel account of the three wise men finding Jesus, which John then re-told to Daddy with nearly perfect clarity and he asked me to read it to him again at bedtime. (Then he asked me to read several more stories, so we got to the story of the Holy Innocents when Herod had all the children of Bethlehem under age two murdered. John listened and commented quietly, "Oh, that's sad.")
"Smile, Mary!"
The crowns drying
Chris had to work, but I had intended to take the children to a traditional Latin Mass an hour away. (Epiphany is a day of obligation and we as a family do try to observe the actual dates, in this case January 6, instead of only the "observed" date since almost all dates have now been transferred to "the nearest Sunday.") Unfortunately, I felt really "off" all day, queasy, and quite dizzy. It was a hard decision for me, but I decided that I could push through dizzy feelings within the safety of my own home, but I shouldn't get behind the wheel of the van with my kids, so we stayed home.
I guess Mary was tired during today's quiet time in the den! Hearing her fall silent and discovering her fast asleep on the floor was so much better than battling with her for an hour to try to force her to nap.
After playing outside in the cold but glorious sunshine, the kids requested hot cocoa.
John said, "This is a lovely way to warm up!"
For dinner, I served something spicy and Asian because the three kings came from the Orient: creamy chickpea curry with chicken over rice.
After dinner, we read Scripture readings appropriate to the night. Then we donned our fun crowns and marched around the house following Chris as he did the Epiphany house blessing, marking chalk on the doorways. (When we belonged to traditionalist parishes, the priests did this blessing, which is so meaningful. But when a priest is not available, it is traditional for the father to do the blessing.)
Finally we sang "We Three Kings" (which I had been singing to the kids for a couple of days to let it sink in) and ate our Kings' Cake. Nobody found the symbolic coin I had inserted into the cake, so we hope to find it in the coming days.
Many Catholic families give the children three small gifts on Epiphany (often religious gifts), which I planned to do. However, I miscalculated the Twelve Days of Christmas, thinking it included Epiphany as the twelfth day. Because of my miscalculation, I ran out of gifts! And I simply didn't have it in me to go out and find three more gifts just for the sake of having them after the kids had opened our Christmas gifts for twelve mornings in a row. I know they didn't miss it and next year I'll know not to miscalculate this!
There were pros and cons to opening gifts over the Twelve Days of Christmas. We highly valued the calmness seen in the children opening only one or two gifts per day. Never did they become overstimulated and they'd play happily with their new toys all day instead of toys getting lost in a giant pile of gifts. Because of their young ages, they didn't realize more presents were coming each day, so every day was an innocent, joyous surprise for them. The negatives were that it required organization on my part and it was hard to hold off thanking people for their gifts as we opened them over such a long stretch of time. One idea Chris and I are considering next year is to open relatives' gifts on Christmas, and open our immediate family gifts on the Feast of St. Nicholas (December 6) and on Epiphany (January 6). If we were to celebrate Epiphany in that new way, I'd really hope Chris could take the whole day off of work, the same way he would as if it were Christmas. Epiphany more deeply celebrates when Jesus' identity as God was revealed to the whole world through the Three Wise Men arriving to meet him, so is a very important feast day!
For the new plan we might try next year, in between, for the Twelve Days of Christmas, I'd focus on secular Christmas activities (decorating cookies, volunteering), listening to and singing Christmas music, and the many special Catholic feast days that occur during that season, all of which have crafts and activities I can do with the children, as well as attending special Masses. From December 6 through January 6 is an incredibly rich stretch of Catholic feast days, the most interesting ones being St. Nicholas, Immaculate Conception, St. Lucy, Nativity of Our Lord (=Christmas!), St. Stephen the First Martyr, Circumcision of Our Lord, Most Holy Name of Jesus, Holy Innocents, and Epiphany.
Liturgically, the Christmas season extends 40 days through to the Feast of Candalmas on February 2, but the most exciting time (and intense work on Mama's part) is now closing with Epiphany!
I still can't get my act together with the calendar. Though we did have cake today (leftover from miriam's bday) and sang "Happy Feast Day" to Christina Epiphany. That was the most we've done for any feast or saint day in recent memory. And we didn't even talk about the three kings. I'm a total failure. Hope to do better in 2011.
ReplyDeleteSarah Faith: Yeah, well, when I have six kids in seven years, let's compare how we're doing. You're not a total failure, you're just having to put your finite energy into other areas!
ReplyDeleteI first read your coin in cake thing as you guys finished all the cake, but no one discovered the coin, so you were going to have fun discovering it in a much less pleasant form in the coming days :P
ReplyDeleteI still don't know how a priest from a traditional parish can bless every house in 1 day!