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!

Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you and your family this Christmas Season and may you be filled with His grace and peace in the new year.

God Bless!

Christmas Review

Praise God, we had a wonderful two days this weekend with family celebrating the Birth of Our Lord!  Everyone remained relatively healthy and in good spirits.  We had great food and lots of laughs.  

The highpoint of Christmas for me, though, is Midnight Mass.  This one was particularly good because Ms 15 yo sang her first solo ever.  She sang "O Holy Night" for the communion meditation song.  She did a great job and didn't have too much "nervous" vibrato in her voice.  She's the blond on the left in the front row.

Then we were all surprised when my husband came into Mass dressed as the MC.  He had gone early to bring Ms 15 yo and Mr 11 yo to prepare for Mass when he got asked to be the MC so Fr. Michael could con-celebrate.  It was cool to see him in his cassock and surplus.

Mr 11 yo got to be the thurifer.  He enjoys that position and does a good job of not gagging when all the incense is hanging around his face!

 Another big highlight for me this year was the gift I received from my husband.  

 

This book is awesome!  It has all of the prayers, Sunday readings and daily readings from the Mass as well as all kinds of other prayers...pretty much anything you need!  

I love books like this; especially ones with ribbons.  I took it to Mass this morning, and while it will take me awhile to find my way around, I loved having everything I need all in one book!

The kids are all happy, too.  The older girls now have the challenge of fitting all of their new clothes into their already stuffed closet (three girls to one closet :) and the boys and Ms 8 yo have the challenge of figuring out where to store all of their new Legos.  You pretty much can't take a step around here without stepping on a Lego.

All-in-all it was a very blessed beginning to the Christmas season.  I hope that your Christmas was off to a good start, too.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Chrstmas!

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

White Elephant

We had one of our extended family Christmas parties yesterday. Each year we have a grab bag for the adult men and one for the adult women. This year my aunt suggested we shake things up a bit and do a White Elephant.

At first I thought it was a good idea because every year I would dread trying to find grab bag gifts to buy. Quite often, these would be the last gifts I would purchase because I could just never figure out what to get that would be pleasing to a wide variety of women or men. The women usually ended up exchanging Christmas decorations while the men usually ended up exchanging small tools.

Once I realized that I had to find something in my house for this White Elephant, I realized it wasn't going to be that easy. After a year of whittling down our "stuff" the only things left in my house were things we use. My mom and dad came to my rescue. They found stuff for us in their basement!

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I had the privilege of "winning" what has to be the epitome of a White Elephant gift: big, ugly and not very practical.

My first thought when I saw it was that it could be used for a really big soap dispenser. I mean, we have seven children, we go through a lot of soap around here! My next thought was: who in the world has enough counter space for something this big (it's about 15" high and 13" at its widest part)? But the thought that finally won out was: this thing is really ugly!

Unfortunately they made a rule that you can't bring back these gifts for next year's White Elephant. If anyone else out there participates in a White Elephant and needs a "good" gift, let me know and I would be happy to send this to you!

God Bless!

O Holy Night

My daughter got some Josh Grobin CDs for Christmas and I decided that I really like his voice. Finally someone I can sing along with! My neighbor then sent me this video link which is a combo of him singing "O Holy Night" with footage of Jesus' birth from the movie "The Nativity". It's worth the four minutes just to hear him sing! Hope you enjoy!



God Bless!

Merry Christmas!

May God Bless You!