Baking Day

Measuring...

The girls take after their mother...the best part of baking is licking the beater.

Our first attempt at Oreo truffles. Place 1 pound of oreos in food processor and puree to a pulp.

Add 8 ounces softened cream cheese, cubed. Puree again.

This is the filling when it's done. Remove and store in refrigerator for several hours.

I used a small melon baller to make the truffles. I scooped some into my hand and then rolled them. I can promise you that I never knew how much grease was in an oreo cookie until I made these. My hands were nasty. Once the balls were made, I placed the whole tray in the freezer.

We forgot to take pictures the next day while Mom and I were dipping them in the chocolate, so they really are much prettier finished. I melted 1/3 of a bar of paraffin wax and 1 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips in a double boiler. Then we used a toothpick to dip the truffles in the chocolate and placed them on wax paper. We spooned a tiny bit of chocolate on top of each truffle to cover up the hole from the toothpick.

Oh. My. Goodness. If you like oreos, this is divine.

We also made silver bell cookies. These are one of my childhood favorites.Finished silverbells.

Then, of course, there were sugar cookies to decorate.

We had so much fun baking together. We made biscotti and pound cake in addition to all of the above. It was a joy to deliver all of our goodies to friends and family.

Feast of St. Lucy

My great-grandmother's 99th birthday would have been yesterday. She died three weeks before Mary-Grace was born. Her middle name was Lucy, and she had a huge devotion to St. Lucy, the patroness of the blind. Mauman had lots of trouble with cataracts when she was older. After reading about lots of traditions surrounding the feast of St. Lucy, we decided to start our own this year. My mom made a beautiful felt wreath for Mary-Grace to wear. Mary-Grace's godmother loaned us a beautiful white dress and red sash. So our sweet girl got all gussied up bright and early (although she was a bit cranky and exhausted from our late night celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe the night before), and we brought cinnamon rolls to have breakfast with Nana, Grammy and Papa. It was a sweet time that we hope to recreate next year.

Gracie and Grammy

Enjoying cinnamon rolls, reading Hanna's Christmas.

Coloring a beautiful color sheet of St. Lucy and the star boys by Charlotte.

And below, Miss Ava had to model the wreath once we were home.

Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Thomas family hosted a lovely fiesta in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We truly did feast! Each family brought a Mexican dish to share. More than 40 children did the craft! And that's just those that did it. There were lots of children too small to do it, and some of the big kids opted out.

We are so blessed to be surrounded by families who cherish life. Families who will say no to the world, and accept children lovingly from God....LOTS of children.


A shot of part of the crowd. The kids were hard at work on their tilmas.

Mary-Grace colors Our Lady.
The finished product. Mary-Grace was too busy playing to glue her rose petals on.

SNOW!

I got up this morning at 5:25, and as I was headed to the coffee pot, the phone rang. My first thought was, "Oh, God, who died?!" But it was my in-laws in Sunset (12ish miles north of here) calling to tell me they had 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. I looked outside, and, lo and behold, we did too...well, about an inch or so. I waited until about 5:45, and then I woke up Jacob and Mary-Grace, bundled them up and brought them out. They didn't know what to think. Jacob was flipping out excited, while Mary-Grace begged for hot chocolate. The last time we had snow on the ground was February 7, 1988...the day before my 9th birthday.

5:45 am

6:00 am

Obviously, Phil's got the photography talent over here. I love these shots he got of the sunrise.

Around 7:00, Phil took all three back out. I watched from my warm spot in the kitchen.

"Old Ladies Luncheon"

Every year at Christmas, my great-aunt, Nanaine Dot, has the "Old Ladies Luncheon". This picture shows my grandmother (Grammy, top left), her sister (Nanaine Dot, top right), and three of their mother's four remaining sisters, Mabel, Ernestine (Te-Teen), and Scholastique (Ca-tee). This year, my mom was driving my grandparents there (Lutcher, the end of the earth), so the kids and I tagged along because they never met the old aunts.

These old ladies are adorable. They are 89, 81, and 86. How cool is it that my kids got to see their great-great-great aunts?! They also got to see a few cousins who are their age as Nanaine Dot has lots of great-grandchildren. They really had a ball and were so well-behaved. I was so proud of them.

And here's Papa feeding Ava her third bowl of ice cream. I don't know who enjoyed that more. Ava ADORES her Papa. I hope we can make it next year.

Feast of St. Nicholas

We have learned so much about this great saint this Advent. We read lots of picture books, watched Nicholas, the Boy Who Became Santa, and had hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers. A precious friend pointed me to an article about St. Nicholas in Word Among Us (a magazine). It spoke of how we often attribute most of the stuff about him to legend, but that he really was a great man, who did great things for God. It said that since his death in the 4th century, his remains have secreted a liquid that has been associated with physical and spiritual healing. How amazing is that?!

Then the article said this:

"In the early nineteenth century, a quite different kind of wonder began to unfold in the city of New York. In a development that our ancestors in the faith would have found astonishing, holy Bishop Nicholas was repackaged as a fat, bearded elf in a red suit.

It began in 1809, when the New York Historical Society decided to promote St. Nicholas and to recapture the Christmas traditions of the city’s early Dutch settlers. Those settlers had not, in fact, continued their St. Nicholas traditions in the New World, but this lack was quickly met. That same year, writer Washington Irving published a satirical account of New York’s Dutch history. The spoof included descriptions of a jolly, pipe-smoking St. Nicholas who flew over treetops and slid down chimneys to deliver gifts. The fiction quickly became an urban legend.

In 1822 came the hugely popular poem by Clement Clarke Moore, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” This gave the bishop his furs, sleigh, and reindeer, along with a date change: “the night before Christmas.” Illustrators and commercial artists did the rest. By 1931, a hefty Santa Claus (from Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for St. Nicholas) was advertising Coca-Cola.

Today, the whole world recognizes Santa. By comparison, not many would recognize the face of St. Nicholas."

This made me so sad...that, in a nutshell, the man hailed by the world as the great big thing about Christmas is nothing but a mockery of the real saint. For us, this was a confirmation of what the Lord did in our hearts regarding Santa a few years ago. We are so grateful to have learned so much of the truth of this great man.

Here's what the kiddos woke up to on the morning of December 6th.

And here they are modeling...my boy's looking a little loopy.

For Tea Time, we made chocolate santas into St. Nicholas' with a bishop's hat and miter.

And just because she's so cute when she knows she's being disobedient.

We are waiting for Him

Advent is one of my favorite times of year. With Advent comes the beginning of a new liturgical year. There is a sense of finality from the end of the previous, and much anticipation with this new beginning.

The Lord has been teaching us and refining us over the last few years as to what He would have this season and the Christmas season look like in our home. This year, I had a great desire to make sure that Advent in our home lined up with Advent in the Church. It's not Christmas yet. The Church officially celebrates Christmas for twelve days after Christmas Day (through Epiphany), but usually I'm so sick of looking at the decorations in my own home that they come down a couple of days after Christmas.

So here's what Advent will look like in our house this year:

We are taking a break from school to live the liturgical season (except for math and LOTS of Advent picture books). We are deep cleaning everything over these next few weeks, and praying together that the cleaning and decluttering done in our home is mirroring the same thing going on in our hearts. We are making room for Him to be born in us. The kids got a big kick out of cleaning baseboards yesterday; I could get used to this.

Our tree is up, but it is bare except for our prayer intention chain. No lights, no ornaments, no gifts underneath it. We stopped putting gifts under it a couple of years ago to help our children (and ourselves) remember that Christmas is about giving, not getting. The result was wonderful for them and for us. There was a shift in focus that I didn't even realize that I needed. In the same spirit, we've decided to leave our tree empty. We are waiting for the Light to come. It's such a good visual for us all to look at that empty thing. It's made me think of what it might have been like for Israel to be waiting for the Messiah to come.

I made a chain for the kids to take apart each day until Christmas. There are two weeks of purple links, one week of pink, followed by purple for the last few days of Advent. Each link has a prayer intention that we read during our morning prayer so that we can pray for that person all day.

Morning prayer time is also when we do our Jesse Tree. This is our first year for this, and we are loving it. A few weeks ago, my mom and I spent all weekend hand-crafting felt ornaments for it. We made 32 for Advent, plus 7 more for the O Antiphons (December 17 marks the beginning of the "O" Antiphons, the seven jewels of our liturgy, dating back to the fourth century, one for each day until Christmas Eve. These antiphons address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, based on the Old Testament prophecies and types of Christ. The Church recalls the variety of the ills of man before the coming of the Redeemer. -http://www.catholicculture.org/ ) As a side note, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" was written based on the O Antiphons. And the monks who arranged them did it such that in Latin, the first letter of each one spells ERO CRAS, meaning "tomorrow, I will come." We are using this book to go along with our Scripture readings for the Jesse Tree. Here's what it will look like on Christmas morning.

At dinner, we use our Advent wreath. The kids are really excited about it this year, likely due to the fact that fire is involved. I loved lighting the Advent wreath when I was a little girl. As an adult, I love the symbolism of it.

Taken from Jessica:

"The round shape stands for God's eternity. Like God, it has no beginning and no end.

The greens used to make the wreath are EVERgreen, and therefore unchanging, just like God.

The four candles symbolize the four centuries that man waited for the coming of our Savior.

Three of the candles are purple since Advent is a time of penance. It was because of our sinfulness that we needed a Savior, and so we must prepare ourselves through sacrifice and penance during Advent for Christ's coming at Christmas. However, we know that Christ HAS and IS coming again, and so our penance is a joyful one! We are joyfully anticipating and preparing ourselves for the celebration of Christmas, as well as Christ's second coming. Therefore, one candle is pink to represent our joy.

On the first Sunday of Advent we light one purple candle. On the second Sunday of Advent, two purple candles are lit. On the third Sunday of Advent, which is called "Gaudete Sunday", we light the pink candle since "Gaudete" means "let us rejoice!" And then, on the fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent, all four candles are lit. The gradual lighting of the candles is a visible sign for us. We can see the light growing brighter the closer we get to birth of Christ, who IS the light of the world!"

I downloaded this amazing album from itunes last weekend. Heather wrote about it last year, and I never got around to buying it. Now I wish that I had. It's beautiful and moving. Like the empty, dark tree, it makes me stop and think about a time before a Savior. I cannot even begin to fathom it. And I am overcome with gratitude that God had a forever plan to save us; I'm overcome with thanksgiving for the Baby who came to do the most loving and most horrific act that would guarantee our salvation.

In addition to all of the above daily things, we also celebrate a few feast days in Advent.

On December 6th, we celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas. We will read lots of books, including The Miracle of St. Nicholas, The Real Santa Claus, and The Legend of St. Nicholas. Our children know that Santa Claus as seen in the malls, etc., is not real. They know that he does not come down chimneys on Christmas Eve. But we love teaching them about the saints! So, they will each get a new pair of slippers filled with chocolate gold coins on St. Nicholas' feast. We will have a quick craft later in the day with hot chocolate and candy cane stirrers. Colleen beautifully describes the why behind this feast here.

December 9th is the feast of St. Juan Diego and December 12th is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The story of Juan Diego can be found here. This is the first year we really do these feasts in a big way. Some friends of ours are hosting a Mexican fiesta on the 12th to celebrate. The kids will watch Juan Diego: Messenger of Guadalupe, make a really cool craft, and we will feast with wonderful friends.

The next day, the 13th, is the feast of St. Lucy. This is the first year we do this also. December 13th was my great-grandmother's birthday, and her middle name was Lucy. In Sweden, the tradition is for the oldest daughter to dress in white and wear a wreath with lit candles (or painted!) and serve the family a hot beverage and sweet rolls in bed. Now, the in bed part won't happen because I would go ballistic about it, I'm sure, but I'm working on a wreath and we'll be doing the cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast. We'll read this book. Because the name Lucy means "light," in many countries in Europe, St. Lucy's feast is when the lights are turned on for the Christmas season. We will turn on the lights in our Dicken's village houses that day as well.

I'm hoping that the housework can be complete by the end of the third week of Advent so that our final few days are spent baking and reading more and more.

I want to impress upon my children's hearts that we are celebrating the beginning of our salvation...that there was a time when there was no hope, only the promise of it. And I want to learn from them...lessons of child like faith and trust, lessons about giving of ourselves and of wanting to share all that we have. I want to create lots of memories for them and for us. Mostly, I want to honor the Lord in our planning and preparation. I pray for many blessed days ahead, and for Him to be born in us again and again as we celebrate.

As a final thought, here's a picture of my grandparents' "mountain". They've done this instead of a tree since I was about 8 or so. I still can't wait to see it each year.

Getting Ready...

Not to jump the gun too much, here's the list of what needs to be accomplished during Advent. Thanks to Colleen for posting her list. The why behind all of this will follow later.

Before Advent begins:
-prepare Advent wreath (done)
-make paper chain (done)
-prepare Advent book baskets (done)
-hang Jesse Tree (done--and oh. my. word. It's precious!)
-get manger and yarn ready for good deeds (done)
-purchase Christmas music (done)
-pick up house to begin deep clean (done)
-declutter outside toys; major purge needed! (done)
-set up Nativity (done)

1st week of Advent:
-put up tree (done)
-deep clean and declutter school room, kitchen and den (done!!)
-finalize plans for St. Nicholas’ feast (done)
-finish any shopping locally (done)
-complete any online orders (done)
-order Christmas cards (well....) (now done!)

2nd Week of Advent:
-hang outside lights (to be turned on for St. Lucia's feast) --DONE
-deep clean and declutter hall bathroom and kids’ rooms; toy purge --DONE
-address and mail Christmas cards-- DONE
-prepare for fiesta for Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego (done)
-prepare for St. Lucia’s feast-- DONE
-finish any handmade Christmas gifts --DONE!!!!

3rd Week of Advent:
-deep clean and declutter master bedroom and bathroom
-wrap gifts
-help Mom with any preparations for her house

Christmas Week:
-bake, bake, bake
-attend Christmas Eve Mass
-decorate tree, turn on lights
-Christmas Day at Nana’s house
-Christmas night candlelit Mass at the Cathedral

Feast of St. Therese

Today was a big day in our house. The Church honors St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, and we celebrated her today for all that she has done in our family as our patroness.

My devotion to St. Therese began in college before my first mission trip as we begged her intercession as the patroness of foreign missions. She had recently been declared a Doctor of the Church for her Little Way. Somehow, this sweet unassuming saint made her way into my heart, and she has constantly and consistently lead me to the feet of Jesus.

Phil proposed to me on December 11, 1999, the night Therese's relics were in Lafayette. What a treasure! He proposed to me in front of the Tabernacle in the Cathedral where we would be married, and then we joined lots of friends over at the Carmelite Monastery to venerate her relics. What I remember most about her relics were the roses that surrounded them! They were everywhere. I'm sure I still have the rose I got that night tucked somewhere around here.

When we'd been married for a little over a year, I prayed my first novena to Therese, asking her intercession before the mighty throne of God. I wanted a baby. I'd been told by my wonderful doctor that, on my own, I had a 1% chance of conceiving naturally. He also told me to keep praying. I began my novena on September 23rd so that it would end on St. Therese's feast day. Nine months later, on June 23, 2002, we welcomed Jacob Edward to our family.

The Little Flower kept right on interceding for me apparently, because one week shy of Jacob's first birthday, I was expecting another baby. On October 1st, 2003, again on her feast day, we saw a sweet, acrobatic baby girl on the ultrasound monitor. We went back and forth for months on what her first name would be, but there was no question that her middle name would be Therese. And this ball of fire, Mary-Grace Therese, wears her name well. St. Therese has whispered into her heart and taught this stubborn, defiant, strong-willed child of mine to stay close to Jesus.

Along came Ava Catherine, born on September 19, 2006. When we were looking at baptism dates, the only date that fit both our calendar and the church's was October 1st. Go figure. Once again, this sweet saint would be a part of my children's lives. And I just learned yesterday that this baby's godparents attribute their courtship to Therese's intercession.

So today, we feasted! I woke Mary-Grace up shortly before 6am, and she and I went to Mass early...just us. This was a precious, precious moment that I hope to make into a tradition for the two of us. We came home to a decorated table and made French toast since Therese is from France. We read a beautiful book called God's Little Flower that I bought a couple of days ago. I think it captures her spirit wonderfully, and Jacob especially was most intrigued.

The kids and I prayed our last day of the novena, and prayed for all of the children we know who are named after her: Liliana Therese, Malia Therese, Emily Therese, Mia Therese, Angelle Therese, Madeleine Therese, Ashley Therese, and for the many we couldn't recall.

We spent the afternoon making spoon saints for all of our friends that we'd invited over for the evening. We learned that eclairs were Therese's favorite dessert, so we made our own out of ladyfingers, redi whip and chocolate icing. They were yummy and fun to make. I also made a cake in the shape of a daisy (St. Therese is quoted as saying, "In the world of souls, the living garden of the Lord, it pleases Him to create great Saints, who may be compared to the lilies or the rose; but He also created little ones, who must be content to be daisies or violets."), and we adorned it with fresh roses. Lastly, there was rosy punch.

We'd invited the girls godparents and their children over for dessert in their pjs to honor our family patroness. One of their girls is also named after St. Therese. Jacob's godmother couldn't come because of a meeting, but she'll come tomorrow night to celebrate with us. She, too, has a huge devotion to the Little Flower. Everyone went home with a vanilla rose lollipop!

As she was dying of tuberculosis at age 24, St. Therese said, "After my death, I shall let fall a shower of roses... I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth." And so she has. On the 7th day of my novena this year, a dear friend living in Paris called me to tell me that she'd gone to Lisieux on Sunday on her way home from a business trip, and that she'd prayed for us there. There it was...my shower of roses.

Happy Birthday, Ava!!!

Our sweet Ava-girl turned two on Friday! She keeps walking around saying, "I 2! I 2!" She loved all of the phone calls she got that day....this kid loves to talk on the phone. Wonder where she gets that from!

Ava is a bundle of joy. She lights up the room with singing and dancing, and she loves to give hugs and kisses. She is such a cuddle bug and would love nothing more than for her mommy to hold her all day long. That is, until Daddy comes home. Ava is a total nut for her daddy. It's really an amazing thing to witness. I pray that the way she loves her daddy transfers into love for our Heavenly Father. She is a wonderful little sister and will follow Mary-Grace wherever she goes, sometimes to Mary-Grace's dismay. She's been a challenge these last couple of months as we've gotten back into the school routine, but through it all, God is using her to teach me lots of lessons. I'm learning to prioritize, be creative, move quickly, and sit a lot less!

I love you, Ava Kate!! I pray God's richest blessings on you this year.

Love,

Mommy

Go Trig!

I am typically not AT ALL into politics. I'm still not. But the thought of a pro-life mother of five children, one of whom has special needs, being the VP of our country is very exciting.

Read what Danielle Bean has to say about Trig. The article she links is great.

Colleen's thoughts on Sarah Palin are well worth the read.

Thanks for sharing, Colleen!

Catholic Vote 2008

What We've Been Up To...Part 2

Warning: A million pictures below! And sorry about the formatting. I can't seem to get it right.

Here's our sweet girl, crashed on the chair well before naptime.

Mary-Grace and Ava sing to Jacob at his "brownie party", our traditional family birthday party.

We took a trip to Houston for the 4th. Day one included the Children's Museum which is always a hit. As you can see, Mary-Grace painted her own face; this is her absolute favorite thing about the CM.

From Houston, we went north to Cleveland, TX, to Phil's uncle's house. Pat and Cindy were fabulous hosts! We were joined by Phil's mom and step-dad as well as another aunt.

Pat and Cindy live in the boonies on lots of land. They have a swimming pond, a huge garden, fig trees, chicken coops, etc. This was a wonderful experience for our city children!

Here Mary-Grace and Jacob help collect eggs.

And Mary-Grace waters lots of plants. She did this everyday we were there. Poor kid, her mother has nothing green around here. We plan on amending that situation this fall. I will learn to grow something!

Gracie and Ava swing with Grandma while patiently waiting for the grown-ups to take them swimming.

On the morning of the 4th, we left Ava with Grandma and drove down to NASA for the opening of the Star Wars exhibit. It was pretty small, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the ship that Obi Wan flew in "Attack of the Clones". (Sidenote: I cannot believe how well-versed I am becoming in the things of Star Wars:)

Mom, Jacob and Mary-Grace fly alongside R2D2.

The kids insisted that I climb into this shuttle cockpit with them. I had a hard time getting in with my long legs, but I really thought I was stuck when it was time to get out.

We have been to NASA several time over the last year since we bought a membership. Every time we've been, there's been a different exhibit. This one was the coolest! Mary-Grace and I did the bungee/ trampoline jumping thing. SO COOL!!!

Right before we were ready to leave, out walked the Star Wars characters. Here we are with a Jawa.

Gracie was thrilled to meet Padme and her decoy.

And Daddy's being attacked by some stormtroopers and Boba Fett. The kids got the biggest kick out of this!

And of course, we had to meet R2D2 and this other droid (not sure of his name. I believe it's either R4 or R2D3.)

Back at Uncle Pat's, the kids loved swinging out over the water on the rope swing.

Ava really loved swinging with me on the wooden swing. Talk about use some ab muscles I didn't know I had! It's hard to hold yourself and a toddler on that thing.

Then there was fig picking in the rain. My goodness, this was such a hit. Along with their teenage cousins, Ellen and David, these munchkins picked tons of figs.

Post-fig picking there was fig cleaning. Both sides of the sink were full to the tops with figs. They got to clean them, squish them up and make preserves which they wouldn't even taste.

We had so much fun swimming in the lake. I was on the big time lookout for snakes, but thank God I never saw one. Well, except for the one that's a PET. Seriously. I had to pray long and hard to be able to sleep in a house with a snake. Here's David in the pirogue, Ellen on the raft, and Peggy, Bub, Pat and Sally on the rope.

Of course, there was Cajun log-rolling. See who can stand the longest in the rocking pirogue. Pat and Phil did it also, but they actually sank the thing. Here David and Cindy battle it out.

Jacob loved fishing until he caught the biggest bass in the pond and it seriously almost pulled him in.

Mary-Grace and Jacob picked corn from the garden and fed it to the chickens. This was a huge hit.

Right before we headed out, we got a picture of the kids. Thanks for such a fabulous weekend. We can't wait to come back.