A Weekend Full of Activities and Photos

We wound up our Christmas break with a plethora of activities this weekend.  I'm learning to use manual mode more on my camera, so I was motivated to take a lot of pictures, too.  

Friday night found us at Mr 12 yo's first ever basketball game.  I should say that it's his first game of anything ever!  We found a great Christian church group that run organized sports but only have one practice and one game per week.  It is so nice to not have it overtake our lives...or our dinner time!  Friday night's game was at 9:00 pm.  I think we all took a nap first so we could stay awake :)  I like the fact that they pray before they begin each game, too!

Even though he's never played an organized sport before, I think he did a great job.  We did discover that he needs new gym shoes, as quite a few times his lack of tread made him look like he was ice skating!

Saturday brought Ms 16 yo, Ms 18 yo and me to the theater to see "Les Mis".  I really wasn't sure I was going to like this movie but, I will admit, I cried through most of it and loved a lot of the songs.  It is a very haunting movie!

Later that day we went to pick Ms 20 yo up from the airport as she returns to us from 9 days visiting her boyfriend and his family.

On the Feast of the Epiphany, we took advantage of the fact that no one had to sing, serve or usher at our parish and we went down to St. John Cantius in Chicago for Mass.  No one can convince me that all of these statues and paintings are going to distract me from the Mass.  

This place is so beautiful, especially at Christmas.  Add to that their amazing choir and you feel like you're in Heaven!

After Mass we took a trip to visit my 92 yo great aunt.  She loves to see the kids, even though she is going blind and is slightly deaf!  It's hard for them to go there because she doesn't always get their names right and rarely can hear what they are saying, but they do a great job cheering her up. 

We did a house blessing for her for the feast today and then Mr 7 yo took the holy water and sprinkled her with it like I do to him at night.  It kind of took her by surprise, but she thanked him for it!

It was then time to come home and bless our own house.  Changed into comfy clothes, we lit the incense that the church had available for people and followed the prayers they had listed in their bulletin.  They even gave out pieces of chalk to mark the doors with.  Here's my husband holding the incensor that came with my son's Mass kit.  We finally got to put it to use :)

Tomorrow starts back to school.  I think we will take the morning to reorient ourselves and map out a course for the next couple of months.  Hate to just "dive" into anything, right?  Happy Feast of the Epiphany!

God Bless!