John's Baptismal Anniversary

Sorry, grandparents, for the lack of posting lately. Chris just finished three back-to-back weeks of business travel and Mama was not handling that too well by the end! Now Christmas vacation begins!

Sunday was John's fifth baptismal anniversary. Because Chris had gone to a special Solemn Mass held vigil the night before, I got the pleasure of a special mommy-son (-and-baby) date to attend Mass in the morning, while Mary stayed home with Daddy.

John had been asking adamantly for a medal for the last couple of months--a Miraculous Medal to be specific--so he received one for his anniversary and had it blessed by Fr. R--- after Mass.

Later in the morning, all of us went out to buy a Christmas tree. John was a little concerned by this because he confirmed with us that Christmas was not today or tomorrow, right? And weren't we still in Advent? And so why are we buying a tree? ("And a little child shall lead them . . .") But we told him that we were afraid the lots would run out of trees if we waited the rest of the week. In response, he assured his sister Mary that we would not decorate it yet. John was so concerned that it makes me wonder if next year we should do what our friends the F------s do when they pile up their 12 kids into the van each Christmas Eve and go hunting for any tree lot that still has stock!

I had to stay in the van because the baby had finally fallen asleep for her blessed nap. Chris and I discussed that he'd look for a really big 8- to 10-foot tree for our 12-foot ceilings. But he reported to me that he couldn't find a tree that he thought was quite big enough--and did they have any that were wider?

Well, apparently neither Chris nor I are exceptionally skilled in the area of spatial skills because the tree he bought is huge. It's tip almost touches the ceilings! And it is definitely wide enough. My my, well, we did not intend to buy such a glorious tree, but glorious it is and we will enjoy it.

We will spend Christmas Eve day decorating it as a family!

Then the kids took a wonderful, peaceful nap, without coming out of their rooms one time. This is the second time it has worked so well to tell them that we hope they nap very well because we'll be really sad to have to leave early from our fabulously fun Family Movie Night as planned with the D---- family because of their being crabby and tired! As Mary emerged from a 90-minute nap, "Mama, have I slept enough to go to the D-----s?"

Before heading to the D----s, we enjoyed an extremely lovely Advent season visit with Chris' aunt.

The children had a great time racing around riding vehicles . . .

. . . and then blowing bubbles in the cul-de-sac. And we adults can recommend so far the first half of Padre Pio: Miracle Man, which we watched before realizing it is a three-and-a-half hour movie. Part II will be watched at a future movie night!

We hope to have a lovely and meditative fourth week of Advent preparing our hearts for the celebration of the Birth of Our Lord!

Bonus: Today's Holy Heroes Advent Adventure (a free Advent program for kids) has a great explanation of the Catholic twelve days of Christmas: click on the first video link here.