Advent Trial and Triumphs

How are your Christmas preparations coming? Predictably, we've had our ups and downs already - the days are growing short and there is still much to be done, both spiritually and materially.

Notably, we are way behind on our Jesse tree, and the kids have been watching too much TV. But our focus on good deeds is helping everyone to put forth some extra effort, always a joy to see.

Here's a peek at some of our recent activities, successes and failures!

We made snowflake cookies with blue frosting for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8:

(Benjamin has since had a much-needed haircut!)

We had early Christmas with the paternal grandparents last week. New Lego and K'NEX sets and books are keeping small hands and brains busy while Mom has so much to do! Definitely a win in my book.

Another Christmas gathering is scheduled for this Sunday at our house. I hope I can figure out what to do with the tree before then!

You can't exactly see from the picture, but two of the three feet broke off the stand, and the tree is leaning against the blinds. It can't stand up at all. We never even made it as far as ornaments! Getting a new tree isn't really an option, so we are trying to decide between a bucket of sand, or looking for a used tree at the Goodwill that we can swap out the stand with. (The bucket of sand sounds like more fun for the "chipmunks", don't you think?)

Needless to say, this is terribly frustrating for an impatient person like me. I have come to realize that I already despise tedious Christmas tasks, including fancy cookie baking and tree trimming. I know, Scrooge!!  Then when things go wrong, I am really not so much fun to be around. I am trying to keep the Christmas spirit by remembering that these are minor things which are supposed to add to our celebration, not define it. And I love the results so much that I will go through the aggravation to enjoy them later.

Fortunately, I have drowned my sorrows in the most decadent, easy pumpkin spice latte from Sarah. I finally broke down after weeks of eying her sidebar photo, and I bought the requisite holiday ice cream. In seconds I had something that rivaled the costly lattes available at those places we all know too well. Oh, soooo good!!

It was even better with a chocolate biscotti from the homeschool moms' cookie exchange this week. Happy sigh. I am trying to shut out the little voice in the back of my head, from a Mass reading on the first Sunday of Advent: "Make no provision for the desires of the flesh." Hmm. Still have to work on that one.

Now on the agenda: getting family photo, finishing Christmas cards, more baking, cooking and wrapping. Some new treats I am hoping to try are these darling meringue mushrooms that someone brought to the cookie exchange and some cereal clusters that I would write home about. Yum.

So those are the kinds of things keeping me from my blog these days... An ice storm is headed our way tonight and we are wondering if there will be power tomorrow. Every day an adventure! Hope the last week of Advent is going well for everyone.

A Season of Preparation

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was noisy and fun, just surrounded with beautiful, simple food and beloved family. I was so tired that we spent the next 2 days doing n-o-t-h-i-n-g! Literally. Therefore I am a little behind getting ready for the St. Nicholas party here on Dec. 1st. Grocery shopping was haphazard and I have no idea what we will be eating this week. But I did get lots of sleep!

I did manage to put a little thought into our Advent plans. It's just a beautiful time to me, and I am really enjoying sharing it with the kids as they get a little older. Here is our Advent wreath with lovely candles recycled from last  year...

We read the prayers together and the first candle burned during our Sunday night dinner.

I decided to make little cards with one-word inspirations on them as a focus for our good deeds. These are areas that we all need to improve on within the family, and we will each draw one randomly on each Sunday of Advent to inspire us for the week ahead. It was uncanny how perfectly matched each word was to the one who drew it this week!! God knows what we all need.

As always, for each good deed in the next 4 weeks, we will be adding straw to a little basket representing Baby Jesus' bed, making it as deep and soft as possible before His birthday. It's delightful to see how earnestly the kids are trying to please Him, at least so far! It's a great reminder to me of how important it is for all of  us to have a focus and motivation for our good works, and of how wise the Church is to give us these seasons and challenges to reach higher in our efforts to love and serve.

So granted, none of the above takes any time to actually do, so this year I am finally implementing a Jesse Tree devotional for each day. I've never done one in the past, either because I didn't get myself together in time, or the kids weren't really old enough to participate. I searched online and found there are dozens of versions out there, kind of overwhelming! Basically, this is a way of learning salvation history through well-loved bible stories. Each story has an accompanying symbol which is made into an ornament and hung on a tree. I settled on something that seemed very simple and sweet even for small children, with printable symbols to make it easy for me. Our tree is just a little Christmas tree I happened to have, although I would have liked a real branch if I'd had more time.  Here is our first ornament, the shoot from the "root of Jesse" (Isaiah 11: 1-2)

It's been fun putting the materials together and the kids seem to be into it. What kid doesn't love a story, especially a bible story filled with drama? I hope this will help us all to see the big picture of why Jesus' birth is so important and that there really is more to Christmas than shopping and opening gifts. We love everything about Christmas here, so it is a joy to deepen our understanding and discover greater meaning to our beloved traditions.

There will be lots of fun celebrations along the way, too. Advent is really such a joyful time! St. Nicholas day is big, and as I mentioned, the party for our homeschool group will be here, on Wednesday. It is a big party! I'm also planning a peppermint day, something yet-to-be-determined for December 8, (the feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception), and a Mexican feast for Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12. I am sure there are more celebrations to follow, they're just not on my radar yet! We always drive around to look at Christmas lights around Christmas day, but I recently heard of someone who had a tradition of doing it for St. Lucy's day, December 13. I'll have to look into that.

One thing I still need to do is get together our Advent/Christmas book basket. That will be another post. For now, Advent blessings to all my readers! I hope this is a special time for all of your families. 

PS: Oh, and it's Catholic Cyber Monday at Lacy's - look at all these deals she has rounded up!! You could shop all day right there.