After explaining how we fast from Christmas music during Advent (and then turn up the jams during the Twelve Days of Christmas until Epiphany!), I get a variety of reactions including “Are you insane?” Well, probably. And “so, what DO you listen to during Advent?” To be honest I am just now discovering “Advent music” instead of just abstaining from Christmas music and I have completely fallen in … [Read more...]
Little HolyDays: The Feast of St. Nicholas
Welcome to our first Little HolyDays link up and Happy New Year! No, I haven’t gotten the months confused, it’s the beginning of a new liturgical year. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Let’s hope you were more organized than I and didn’t spend part of your Sunday scrambling around looking for your Advent wreath (don’t worry! I found it!). Anyhow, for our very first Little HolyDays … [Read more...]
How We Celebrate Advent
After writing about observing Advent instead of fighting Santa, I promised to tell you a little bit about what our family does to celebrate Advent. It's actually very simple and I think the difficulty lies in having to say no to a lot of festivities in order to spend Advent waiting, reflecting, and anticipating. What We Do: We bring out our Nativity Scene. My sweet mother-in-law gave us this … [Read more...]
Holy Time: Observing Advent Instead of Fighting Santa
Every year I hear folks bemoaning the secularization of Christmas and how commercialism has overtaken what used to be a Christian holiday. I read news stories about which retail stores are promoting “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and which groups and organizations are boycotting those stores for choosing to greet their customers in one way or another. People label it the “war on … [Read more...]
On the Last Day of Christmas…
(Lucy's Christmas shoes and special Christmas china from Daniel's mom) We are: Listening to Christmas Music Drinking Hot Chocolate (miraculously, Benjamin hasn't spilled it yet) And, by Benjamin's request, watching the Nutcracker This little Christmas elf is enjoying the last day of Christmastide. I think this little man is going to miss the Christmas season. Or perhaps I … [Read more...]
Our Year in Pictures: 2011!
I think Daniel and I both agree that 2011 was our best year to date. Here’s some highlights (which turned out to become a monstrously long post with mostly pregnancy pics, oh well). January Daniel got a new job and we hoped to get pregnant again. Benjamin continued to amaze us with the joy he brought to our world. February In February we celebrated Benjamin's 2nd Birthday … [Read more...]
Ero Cras
Emmanuel Rex Oriens Clavis Radix Adonai Sapientia ERO CRAS: I will be there tomorrow. I love a good old timey Latin Advent acrostic! We are having a relaxing Christmas Eve day before going to my folks house for Christmas Eve dinner. Our sweet boy has been dying to put the ornaments on the tree for weeks and will be so excited for the chance to decorate it tonight. … [Read more...]
Advent/Christmas Books and Music
Since Benjamin was born I've tried to collect books and music that are special for Advent and Christmas. My mom was always very intentional about Advent even though my parents are Protestant and we always listened to special music and had an Advent wreath. Here are some of our favorites: MUSIC Handel's Messiah: This is the music that I remember listening to the most during Advent and … [Read more...]
The 12 Days of Christmas
As part of our attempt to make Advent and Christmas distinct seasons in our household, we want to celebrate each of the 12 days of Christmas and save fun holiday traditions until then. But I need your help because I'm having trouble coming up with TWELVE things to do. Here's what I've got so far: Christmas Eve: Decorate the tree! (We have lights on the tree now but haven't put any ornaments … [Read more...]
