Advent 2016

Did I mean to be absent from my blog over a year? No. This was perhaps the busiest year I ever want to experience. All good things but so many things. I was so ready for Advent this year. I happened to google a phrase that popped into my head on November 15, "a homely advent." This is what I wanted. Homely, meaning simple and unsophisticated, not grand and elaborate.

The first few links that popped up in my search for "a homely advent" included a link to The Contemplative Cottage's Celtic Advent Calendar, which began that very day, Nov. 15, forty days before Christmas. This was just the week after our tumultuous presidential election and everyone I knew was either in shock or horrified/terrified, or in dismay at the resulting ugliness of feeling. Tomorrow is three weeks since the election and while many feelings are still volatile, the immediate shock is over.

Focussing on Advent seemed like a calming and positive way forward. I'm directing my energy not on political action or social media debate or researching the rabbit trails of news stories, but on what matters most in the end regardless. I am making a renewed effort to spend time on spiritual reading, prayer, observing the liturgical year, and especially in observing Advent as a distinct period of time of preparation for Christmas. We set out our Nativity scenes and Advent wreath. Christmas decorations and gifts are staying stashed away for a later appearance.

The devotional book I've chosen for this year is "Season of Promises: Praying through Advent with Julian of Norwich, Thomas a Kempis, Caryll Houselander, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, Max Picard" by Mitch Finchley. It's a small book and the daily readings are short but interesting. This year Advent is as long as it can possibly be, the full four weeks, so I'll get to read through it entirely.

Yesterday was the First Sunday in Advent, a cold, wet, miserable day that made it difficult to want to leave the house for Mass. But we made it, and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" was sung, the Advent wreath was blessed and lit, and the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist looked down at us and sang with us, "Come let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord."

The first advent candle is said to represent Hope. Christ Our Hope. Our hope for peace and justice and love and life eternal. "Stay awake!...you also must be prepared." "Come let us climb the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." Let's walk the path of Advent together and not lose hope.

Autumn 2015

It's my birthday, so like any good hobbit, I have gifts for my party guests! Here is a copy of my Autumn 2015 liturgical quarter calendar for each of you to print and color. Enjoy!

Auturmn 2015 by LeeAnn Balbirona

Winter Solstice

Fourth Sunday in Advent and the Shortest Day

It certainly feels like the "days are hastening on," heading so quickly into Christmas it's like we are on a runaway train. I have done little to prepare for the holiday since coming down sick during midweek. Well, at least my shopping was pretty much done, the rest can be done online. I can order groceries online as well. We have a lot of movies to watch at home. The house is fairly clean and with all this down time, everyone is catching up on laundry.

Homemade vegetable soup with plenty of garlic and red pepper

What I have "prepared" for Christmas dinner so far.
Gluten Free Christmas Pudding (individual serving size for $8) and
Gluten Free Panettone (might serve two to four for a small bite).
Both from Amazon.

Sunrise at 7:57 a.m. and sunset at 4:17 p.m. Only 8 hrs and 20 min of daylight today. Apparently, this is the longest night ever in the history of earth. But never fear, from here on out, the day length will increase by a few minutes each day.

In some ancient calendars, there are only summer and winter; spring and fall are just brief transitions between the two. Today may be the "first day of winter" by modern reckoning, but it was considered midwinter in former times.

Winter, 2008

Christina Rosetti's famous midwinter poem captures the feeling of this point in the season, when the days seem harsh and the dark hours endless.

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

The rest of the poem can be read here: In the Bleak Midwinter.

Christina Rosetti, 5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894

Later, this poem was set to music. Here is my favorite performance of In the Bleak Midwinter, performed by Corrine May. I like the simple setting, a few folks gathered to listen in a tea shop, with the lights of busy traffic speeding behind her. Very mid-winter-ish feeling: cold outside and yet warm inside. Another beautiful performance is in the Doctor Who special "A Christmas Carol" by Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins, but that's a different kettle of fish.

Fish?
Ha HA ha

Today's O Antiphon: O Oriens

O Morning Star,

splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Today's Mass readings are about King David wanting to build a house for the Lord, to move the tabernacle from a tent to a temple. The desire of the people was to keep God with them always. God promised to dwell with them and a temple was built, and later destroyed, and rebuilt and destroyed again. God kept his promise to dwell with us, not just the Hebrews but all people, through Mary, and her little son Jesus, in whom God became flesh.

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!

Keep watch! Christ is coming!

Prepare! Christmas is coming!

Rejoice! The Lord is near!

He is coming to dwell with us.

Advent Ember Friday

Focus: conversion of the heart; prepare for Christmas with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. 

Put a bird on it.

Christmas is very near, less than a week is left in Advent. The kids are on their last day of school. The shopping must be finished. Packages must be wrapped and mailed. There is a menu to be planned and a lot of eager hungry relatives to be fed. It is easy to get caught up entirely in the frenzy of preparing that comes with the holidays.

The ember days remind us to orient ourselves to the spiritual first and focus on the joy of Christ's coming. In quiet observation of the natural world, we can see that all of creation is filled with signs from God, from the obvious beauty of a clear bright winter day where the snow sparkles in sunlight, to the hidden beauty of a nut tree gone to sleep for the winter in preparation to bear its fruit next year.

As we continue our work throughout the winter months--because even during vacation, children must be fed and dishes must be washed and laundry must get done (or whatever your daily work might be)--we ask the Lord to bless our labors, and put them in his hands for his own use.

Bless my reading, and thinking, and drawing, and writing, Lord; may these activities lead me to holiness, and if they do not, then direct me to other work.

Chapel window at Glacier National Park

Natural World
Sunrise today was at 7:54 a.m. and sunset will be at 4:17 p.m. Only 8 hrs and 22 minutes of daylight. The moon is just a sliver of light, waning crescent and only 7% visible. The longest night of the year is just two days away. This year there will be a new moon on Dec. 21, so the night will be very dark indeed. According to a little internet research, this happens about every three years.

In folklore, today's weather predicts next February's forecast. The weather today was 45'-50'F with very heavy rain showers before noon, a sunny/partly cloudy midday and back to rain for the evening. A cold and changeable February would be no surprise.

Prayer (contemplation, praise, thanksgiving, petition)

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Root of Jesse's stem,
sign of God's love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Apparently, in ancient days, there was a folk belief that the souls in purgatory might appear on ember Fridays to those faithful relatives who prayed for them, to thank them for their prayerful intercession and beg for continued prayers. Some countries have their Halloween-like traditions during this time of year, where children go begging for treats or giving them, and the spirits of those who have passed away are remembered.

Kitchen window icon

I need to pray for my loved ones who have died (or rather, they depend on me to pray for them). As a convert, this is a practice I did not grow up with and am still learning. I appreciate the quarterly reminder of ember days to not forget the poor souls in purgatory. I will light a candle for each of them tonight, and for all those living persons who have asked for prayers recently, and thank God who has "come to save us without delay!"

Fasting (penance)
Keeping in mind that observing ember days at all is optional, there is no requirement to do anything. But if you wish to, you may. On a normal Friday, Catholics are asked to make an act of penance; the traditional way is to abstain from meat. But you can also do something different. Make an examination of conscience and pray the act of contrition, go to confession (if available today or tomorrow). A little bit of fasting before all the Christmas feasting begins makes everything feel balanced, I think. Temperate.

My "Word of the Year" for 2014

Almsgiving (charitable good work)
I am grateful that I always have food enough in the pantry to feed my family. Today would be a good day to make a donation to the church, either from the cupboards or financial, to help those who do not have enough for their families. This is probably something you do already, but the Ember Friday is like a note that says, "Don't forget the poor and needy!"

Our advent wreath in 2009.

Tomorrow is the last of the ember days for Advent. They come four times a year to bring in the seasons with prayer and reflection, so if you missed this one, wait a few months and it will be time for the next embertide.

"Fasting days and Emberings be
Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie."

O Wisdom

I hoped to get this post up yesterday, but it was a crazy busy day with no time to edit. So here is what I was thinking about yesterday.
-----
Ember Wednesday in Advent

Reflect & orient oneself to the coming season

Today is also the first of the seven "O Antiphons" sung on the seven evenings before Christmas. The first is O Wisdom (O Sapientia).

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,

reaching from one end to the other,

mightily and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Holy Wisdom

The ember days begin with a devotion to Mary. I am thinking today of the wisdom of Mary, whom God gifted with a clear unclouded intellect, since she was preserved from sin from the moment of her conception (what we call her Immaculate Conception). Mary possessed great wisdom and when the angel appeared to her offering her a part in God's plan of salvation for mankind, she said yes, where Eve had said no. I am thankful for her yes, and my prayer is to also say yes to how ever God is calling me to act and speak.

Olive Harvest

In some parts of the world (in Europe: Spain, Italy, and Greece are the top olive producers), the olive fruit is finished harvesting now, ensuring valuable oil (for cooking, for lamps, for use in holy oils) for the year to come.

Olives are harvested in the autumn and winter. More specifically in the Northern hemisphere, green olives are picked at the end of September to about the middle of November. Blond olives are picked from the middle of October to the end of November, and black olives are collected from the middle of November to the end of January or early February. In southern Europe, harvesting is done for several weeks in winter, but the time varies in each country, and with the season and the cultivar. (Wikipedia) 

In Northern countries, it would make sense to give thanks for the olive harvest as well, since olive oil is used to make chrism and other anointing oils throughout the world. I used some olive oil in my cooking tonight for the caroling party.

This harvest has the least strong tie to British, Celtic, and Scandinavian cultures (unlike the grape and wheat harvest), which are my personal areas of interest. It is interesting to try to think as an ancient or medieval northern person would have. What would I be saying prayers of thanksgiving for in December, if I lived 200, or 500, or 1000 years ago?

Think back over the past three months.
What blessings have your received?
How has God provided for you?

Natural World: ember days are set aside to give thanks for blessings received in the past quarter year and ask for God's continued providence

Winter is the traditional time that animals were slaughtered, since the fresh meat was more easily preserved by the freezing air. Some fish and animals were harvested earlier and preserved by smoking, drying, or salting. Useful animals or animals not yet ready for eating were kept fed throughout the winter from the summer's harvest of grain.

As a modern person, I can give thanks for:

• the animals that provide our food.
• that I have a full pantry.
• the people that raised the crops and animals, preserved the food for me and made it available at my convenient local grocery store.
• that I have a warm home, shelter from rain and snow and cold, heated with electric and gas.
• the love of God that sustains us and provides for all our material needs

Sunrise today was at 7:52 a.m. and sunset will be at 4:17 p.m., just 8 hrs and 26 min. of daytime. Moon is a waning crescent at 20% visible. The winter solstice is nearly here.

If folklore regarding weather prediction were true, based on observation of today's weather, January 2015 will be rainy and cold. (No surprise there.) Friday and Saturday's forecasts seem similar, foreboding a dreary wet February and March.

December 1 sunrise

Prayer
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Wisdom of our God Most High,
guiding creation with power and love;
come to teach us the path of knowledge!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Fasting 
In the busyness of all the holiday preparations, some times there is just not time to eat, or to eat properly. If you would like to observe this optional day of fasting, here are some simple ways to begin:

• eating things that were not my first choice 
• eating left overs that no one wants
• eating less than you want
• eating later than you wanted  
• eat without complaining 
• waiting to eat without getting "hangry" 

Almsgiving
Opening my home to friends and family, feeding them, entertaining them. Hospitality is not always something I want to offer, especially when I am feeling behind on other project. But...again, do it anyway. And do it without complaining. Think about every guest as a weary Mary and Joseph coming in to Bethlehem looking for place to rest.

On the way to Bethlehem

Keep watch! Christ is coming.

Prepare! Christmas is coming.

Rejoice! He is near.

St. Lucy Day

How do you celebrate St. Lucy's Day? Do you call it Sankta Lucia or Lussidag? Do you think of her with a crown of candles and tray of saffron buns or bearing a martyr's palm and plate of eyes?

Lucy was a real person, a Christian in the classical era during the times of persecution, and such an ancient saint naturally has had meaning and customs added to her feast day over time.

There are dozens of articles you can read on the internet about her story and later legends, about how her feast day (December 13) became associated with the winter solstice in the far north, and her light-bearing symbolizes the promise of the return of summer in the middle of deep winter.

I want to offer just what I am thinking about this year, as a person who is neither of Scandinavian nor Italian descent (the regions most associated with Lucy's veneration), but who welcomes Lucy into my winter days of remembrance for many reasons.

Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

A hero, virgin, martyr, saint

There is no disconnect between Lucy as martyr for Christ and a symbol of the return of the sun in winter. They are the same thing, understood on the spiritual and natural levels. 

A bringer of light in winter

[These are the day's readings in the Catholic lectionary (if you're protestant, you might hear slightly different readings, since Sirach is not used in later Bibles). I'm using them here as a framework to meditate on, not as any kind of biblical proof for Lucy in the Bible or anything. Of course not, she is just one of many early Christian saints, who become special to certain peoples over time. I think God planned it that way. He knows the best ways to speak to every kind of person, in every time, in every language. Lucia, of course, means "light" and her feast day (the day she was martyred, of her death) is marked on the old calendar's winter solstice, before Gregorian calendar reform.]

Reading 1: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11

In those days,

like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah

whose words were as a flaming furnace.

Their staff of bread he shattered,

in his zeal he reduced them to straits;

By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens

and three times brought down fire.

How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!

Whose glory is equal to yours?

You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,

in a chariot with fiery horses.

You were destined, it is written, in time to come

to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,

To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,

and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.

Blessed is he who shall have seen you 

and who falls asleep in your friendship.

Lucy, like Elijah, became a sign to a people. It was a thousand years ago when the Norse peoples were first evangelized (around 1100 AD), and probably a few hundred years later until the story of Lucy made its way from Sicily to Scandinavia. Over time, the connection was made between the celebration of winter solstice and the saint's story. Today, when the region, and much of the world. has forgotten most of its Christian era, the promise God made to love mankind and establish his reign over all the world is still current, still true, still full of hope. Scripture is wonderful that way. It is timeless, applying to the past, the present when it was written, today, and for the future.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19

R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hearken,

From your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.

Rouse your power.

R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

Once again, O LORD of hosts,

look down from heaven, and see;

Take care of this vine,

and protect what your right hand has planted

the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

May your help be with the man of your right hand,

with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

Then we will no more withdraw from you;

give us new life, and we will call upon your name.

R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

When I read this psalm, and think about the Scandinavian people, I think of  Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset and her quest for truth. Her novels (the most famous is Kristin Lavransdatter) are about women and men realizing their own faults and facing them unflinchingingly; seeking truth outside themselves, looking for honesty in romantic relationships and seeing one's self clearly as a mother, father, wife, husband, son, daughter, and ultimately as a child of God. Sigrid was raised agnostic and modern, she chose to become a Christian (a Catholic Christian in Lutheran Norway in the 1930s) and separated from her husband because of this choice (he had been married before and his first wife was still living).

Lucy may have been raised a Christian or converted later in her childhood, but at some point, she decided to dedicate her life to Christ completely. She vowed to live as a virgin and give her bridal dowry to the poor. Her intended fiancee was angry and had her arrested, and ultimately tortured and killed because she would not change her mind to give up her faith.

These brave women remind me that we all have to face difficulties in life, whether they are little ones that seem trivial (saying no to gossip, or finding that you've been gossiped about) or big ones, such as they faced. Knowing the Truth and keeping the Vision in front of us helps us to bear the hurts, both big and little, and also to confront the pain we may have inflicted on others.

Alleluia Lk 3:4, 6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:

All flesh shall see the salvation of God.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

These are the words of John the Baptist. 
And Lucy says them too with her flames and crown, with the witness of her life.
Yes, Lucy lights the way.
A light in the midst of winter to remind us of summer's return.
A light in the darkness that points us toward the coming of Christ.
St. Lucy Day is a reminder to prepare, in the same way that St. John the Baptist says "prepare!"
Christmas is coming, the Lord is coming. The winter will end, and the sun return.

Do you know about the tradition called Ember Days?

They are seasonal days of penance held after certain dates on the calendar leading up to the traditional quarter days (Christmas, Annunciation, St. John's Day, Michaelmas).  These days are set aside for prayer, for the blessing of the earth and our human care of it (preparing, planting, growing, harvesting), for fasting and thanksgiving.

St. Lucy's Day is the marker for the Advent Ember Days. This coming Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are the Ember Days of wintertime. Her day reminds us to prepare ourselves for Christmas, through prayer, confession, charity, love for others
.
The tradition of Lucy bearing the saffron buns is a remind of her generosity to the poor. Whether you hold the tradition today by having the oldest daughter in the house bring coffee and pastries to the family in bed before dawn, or you attend a community service to hear seasonal songs, watch the star boys, handmaidens and Lucy process with candles and enjoy treats in the church afterward, the point is to remember Lucy's charity.

If you live in an area with no such ceremony to participate in, an act or gift of charity on this day is in keeping with the spirit of Lucy. Actually, an act of charity should always be part of any feast day or saint's day remembrance.

I also use this time as reminder to get to confession before Christmas, whenever it is available during Advent. The schedule at the parish church may be a little different than usual because of all the different activities going on, so make sure to check before you go. The Friday of Ember Days is traditionally a day of abstinence from meat or other penance, and Ember Saturdays were often the days of priestly ordinations. Doing something nice for your local priests or seminarians, and offering prayers for them, would be appropriate on this day.

The Ember Days this week are December 17, 19, and 20th.

Gospel: Matthew 17:9a, 10-13

As they were coming down from the mountain,

the disciples asked Jesus,

“Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things;

but I tell you that Elijah has already come,

and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. 

So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood

that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

The story of Lucy's martyrdom is not pleasant. Most Catholic images of Lucy show her with a plate of eyes, some with the martyr's palm, and fewer with a sword stabbed into her neck, or with bleeding wounds of any kind. John the Baptist was beheaded and his head placed upon a plate to please Herod's niece as punishment for preaching against the world and for repentance and Christ.

Lucy is one of thousands of martyrs to suffer in a similar way, and like all of them, she also calls us to repent of our sins, to love others, and to love Christ, to look for the light in the midst of winter, and have faith in the return of the sun.

Lucy belongs in my winter tradition because she reminds me to

 prepare, 

make ready, 

light the lights! 

Christmas is coming!

Christ is coming!

How different those two phrases are, and yet they are the same. 

So there is my very long meditation on St. Lucy's Day, and I am sure I have more to learn and incorporate into my devotional life as the years go by. This year, at my house, there were no saffron buns or candle crowns, but we did observe St. Lucy's Day in other ways that are also part of the tradition, bringing light into the darkness, giving love to others and giving thanks to God.

You can see how we've celebrated St. Lucy in the past in my post called Winter Saints.

2nd Week of Advent {pretty, funny, happy, real}

Like Mother, Like Daughter is one of my favorite blogs. When I want to read something inspiring and see something beautiful, I head over there to browse the new posts and re-read the archived ones. Leila and family are amazing folk. Every Thursday they host a round up of posts based on the theme, "pretty, funny, happy, real." So here is my post for the second week of Advent.

1. Pretty: It's one of my favorite things every year, choosing a pretty Christmas card to send out to family and friends. Last year, I sent out almost 200 of them. I didn't have enough of the card I'd chosen ("Christmas Night at the Hermitage" from the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, CA) so I had to fill in with a few cards of other types.

This year I'm not sending out quite so many cards, but still, it's a day's work pretty much to get them all addressed, signed, stamped and mailed, not to mention writing the messages inside or at least composing a short letter to print onto the card. To save myself time, I picked up these colorful Madonna and Child cards that caught my eye during the after Christmas sales. Less than $2 a box!

First Choice

2. Funny: And yet...while I liked these cards, they didn't quite have that zing! factor to them that made me feel happy about sending them out. They're perfectly nice, maybe a little cartoonish. I love the bright jewel colors though.

To me, a card is a gift. Not just a piece of paper sent out of obligation or a dated formality. Sending a card is an opportunity to share something beautiful with the receiver, along with your kind and cheerful message inside, of course

Maybe you feel you don't have great taste in choosing cards, or know much about art in general. I encourage you to find a card that catches your eye, even if you don't understand why, pick something that you think is beautiful, or creative, or gives you a good feeling. Try not to just pick a box of cards that makes you think, "hmm, this will do, and it's on clearance." That is pretty much what I was thinking with my first choice.

Back up cards left over from previous years.They might even be from the grocery store. No, these won't do either.

The geometric igloo is cute, but "warm wishes," ugh.

Five more boxes of Christmas Fairy cards sitting on the window sill.
I liked the glitter and overall colors, but looking at this card for a while, it feels a bit melancholy.
I don't want to send sad Christmas cards.
Can I return them? Probably not.

I almost forgot about these. Twenty different vintage cards.
I forget what I was going to use them for. The kids? To give to teachers?
Save them for another year...hmm.

3. Happy: But then I thought...hey, I'm an artist! Maybe I should, like, you know, draw something. Something bright, festive, personal, unique... Like that cool winter liturgical calendar I finished yesterday. You can read more about the process of drawing it here.

Angel, Madonna & Child, Bright Festive Colors?
Sounds like Christmas Card material to me.
And it's useful!
Personal!
And there's even evangelization happening all over it!

I'm so thrilled with finally discovering the obvious solution to the Christmas Card blahs, that I am sitting down at my desk to scan in my drawing...

Finished artwork ready to scan!
The curved painting of Mary is also from the New Camaldoli Hermitage, I think it's called Our Lady of Big Sur.
It doesn't seem to be available on the website currently, which is too bad.
I love the California coastline in the background, the hills all covered in wild golden poppies.

...and while I'm here, I can show you a few ornaments and knick knacks I have sitting around my desk currently. Last year, I hung this multi-colored garland around my bedroom door, but this year, I hung it over my desk to enjoy it even more, since basically I am at my desk half of the day and not standing in my bedroom doorway admiring the mouldings as much as I'd like.

I like a little creative crazy around me.
I have quilted ornaments made by aunts and grandmas, a Hawaiian angel, a red metal heart made by my little sister and a white felt heart made by me, the cork from our wedding champagne, and a set of 
Nutcracker characters I first hung on my dorm Xmas tree.

Over here, is my college pennant and a picture of me graduating from college and even a paper nativity scene I bought in college and have managed to keep all these years. Below, is a picture of my favorite writer I read throughout college, C.S. Lewis. College, college, college. Oh, there's my diploma back there too.

I printed a photo of Lewis from the internet and glued it to some English-y floral scrapbook paper.
He's British, he won't mind.

Over on the other side, are some even older pieces. I bought the beeswax angel at a medieval faire a million years ago. I am always amazed that this one is still in one piece. Though, as I was untangling it from last year's garland, for some reason, I set it in my back pocket while I was working, and it sat there all day, warming against my posterior and ended up curved, but not broken. Not sure how to make it flat again without ruining it.

I made the red ornament with my mother in 1976 or so for Valentine's Day and the little Swiss cottage on the shelf belonged to my great-great-aunt, and it's one of those picture window clicky things.

In the center are two angels, one made by my great-grandmother out of tin cans (Depression era crafts) and one from my mother. Behind that is my original master calendar wheel, drawn on the back of a desk calendar page.

So, there's my desk. Now, back to working on this year's card....

4. Real: The wireless scanner won't talk to my computer. Argh. Off to the copy store I go. Still have 14 days til Christmas anyway, right?

Wireless technology, I love/hate you.
One advantage of greeting cards: they don't have internet connection problems and you never have to troubleshoot them.

1st Week of Advent {pretty, funny, happy, real}

Like Mother, Like Daughter is one of my favorite blogs. When I want to read something inspiring and see something beautiful, I head over there to browse the new posts and re-read the archived ones. Leila and family are amazing folk. Every Thursday they host a round up of posts based on the theme, "pretty, funny, happy, real." So here is my post for the first week of Advent. 

Kirby enjoys Advent too.

1. Pretty: The Advent wreath on the dining table. Our parish has a tradition of making advent wreaths out of tree rounds, branches and pinecones, cut from the cedars on the property around the church. Since the candles burn quickly, after a few hours of letting the Advent wreath burn, I transfer the flame to this pillar candle nearby, so we can enjoy the candlelight all week.

I took this photo from inside because I'm hiding from the kale.

2. Funny: The kale survived the week of snow and ice. Dang. Some kids hide their vegetables. I'm hiding from this one.

Pinging Pingu

3. Happy: My 11yo Ellie made this from a chocolate foil wrapper this morning. What makes me happier, the peppermint bark bells or the cute origami penguin? It's a toss up. ;)

Sigh. The joy of home ownership.

4. Real: Whoops. The spigot was left in the "on" position even though the watering system for the garden was turned off. Water in pipe. Freezing. Expansion. Thawing. Boom! Fortunately, I was sitting nearby when I heard the ominous sound of water gushing out and got it turned off quickly. And fortunately it was just the exterior piping that cracked and broke, not the interior house pipes.

Winter Saints

This December cluster of saints' days, Nicholas on 12/6, Guadalupe on 12/12, Lucia on 12/13 and also Immaculate Conception on 12/8: I find it hard to feel like we've appreciated them all equally. They are so close together and two of them are Marian and only four days apart.

My dining room sideboard this year.

We have gotten pretty good about St. Nicholas day since we started the shoes tradition when the oldest was little.

This tradition started for us in German preschool. The apple, orange, chocolate, nuts, peppermint stick and a small present are exchanged for the letters to St. Nick found in their clean shoes. 

Immaculate Conception is one of my daughter's birthdays, so it has always involved both going to Mass and a birthday party for us.

Always a birthday princess.

December 8
The Immaculate Conception of Mary

Our Lady of Guadalupe, over the years, has come to mean a day to show appreciation for our local Hispanic community, honoring their devotion to Mary, participating in the festivities.

Our parish church in 2008. So pretty with the trees and roses.

St. Lucia though, the observance of this day has been eluding us, despite the many years of reading picture books written about her.

Picture Books and Kids: things I have more of than the average American woman.

I have been learning about the Ember Days for a few years now and the winter ember days are set to follow after St. Lucy. So this year, they will be Wednesday, 12/17, Friday 12/19, and Saturday, 12/20.

So far, we've never managed to get up at before dawn to serve saffron buns.
But one year we made Pillsbury orange rolls from a can. 

I am thinking of St. Lucy with her candle crown as our guide into the second half of Advent, the ember days of preparation, repentance, confession, before Gaudete Sunday.

St. Lucy and Star Boy surrounded by lazy non-sprouting lentils that were supposed to be making a nice green field of Christmas manger hay.

We are not a family of Italian, Sicilian or Scandinavian heritage, but Lucy lights the way toward Christmas for us also.

The winter sun.

The stars we bring inside.

Leading us to the manger.

Leading us to the Baby.
Gloria!