Love.

We are holding each other even closer tonight.  I don't have words, because no words can take away the grief of those parents, siblings and friends who don't get to cuddle their little ones today.  All I can do is pray and hope for peace for their hearts and love.  Love for this country and most importantly the people in it.

St. Lucy's Day Tea Party

With Miss Anni old enough to really partake in and enjoy fun holiday festivities, I decided this was the year to start carrying out some St. Lucy's Day traditions (Dec. 13th), in our own little family. My eldest sister introduced us to this several years ago. She would bake braided bread and bring it to my parent's house, dressed in a white dress (her wedding dress in fact) and red sash. It's been a bummer to miss it as we now live over eight hours of driving away, so it was definitely time to celebrate on our own.

Traditionally, the eldest daughter in the family dresses in white (to represent St. Lucy's purity), with a red sash (to represent her martyrdom) and a crown of candles (to represent St. Lucy's crown of candles that lit her way through the dark forest when she brought bread to the poor).

We included many of these things, but did decide to turn our celebration into a little tea party for Anni and some of her other friends (it just so happens that she has several little friends who are the eldest daughters in their families).

We did make the traditional braided bread; but, in recognizing that I was busy, tired and pregnant, I cheated a little.  I found took some refrigerated cinnamon rolls from the store (the Immaculate brand... yum!), unrolled the rolls, and braided the strands together.  This was much messier than I expected, but the resulted smelled and tasted good, so I'm not complaining in the least.



Another traditional bread for St. Lucy's day are saffron buns (the saffron gives them a golden color as Lucy does, in fact, mean light).  They are supposed to be shaped into an "s" shape, though my digging into why brought me me only that they are supposed to look like rays of light or it was originally the shapes are 12-century fertility symbols associated with a viking goblin queen, whose feast was celebrated with evergreen boughs in midwinter.  We're kind of sticking with the rays of light (again with Lucy meaning light), but I was mostly glad to find any explanation.  Again, I went the easy route (have you seen how expensive saffron is?!) and found some cranberry orange rolls that baked into the perfect color and were relatively easy to unroll and reshape into s shapes.  

The other mamas supplemented our baked goods with all kinds of toddler friendly treats (fruit, cheese, crackers, and quiche) and we had quite a shindig.  While I did make the girls some paper candle wreaths to wear, I also put a few candles in our bread so we could have some real light.  We sang "Happy St. Lucy's Day to you" (to the tune of Happy Birthday, yep) and blew out the candles (it took a little mama help both to make sure no one tried to grab a candle and to get enough power to blow them out).  The toddlers henceforth referred to the bread as cake (well, it is sweet, had frosting, and had candles that we blew out on top) and requested multiple helpings.   

There were two sweet, sweet, baby brothers there as well, though I didn't go so far as to make them star boy hats... four months is a little young to worry about being a part of the festivities.  (I'm sure they mostly hoped that the crazy girls wouldn't include them in their partying.)

We got one quick picture of our wild ones in their crowns (they were mostly destroyed five minutes after this picture... except for Anni, she was adamant that she keep wearing hers).  I think that's the beauty of a quick n' easy craft, I wasn't too worried about the crown's destruction since they took me about 20 minutes to make.

We even had our very own Lucy celebrating her name day!  She mostly just liked watching the two oldest girls get into trouble. 

Four little girls running wild around our little apartment was pretty crazy, but completely worth it to make a fun little memory celebrating our Catholic heritage.  I also printed a few coloring pages for the girls, but completely forget them in the insanity of their running through the apartment.

When Daddy got home and asked Anni how her tea party went, she told him, "All my friends came!" and proceeded to list off who was there.  I think that's a pretty good conclusion for a two-year old.

Prayer to Saint Lucy

Saint Lucy, your beautiful name signifies light. By the light of faith which God bestowed upon you, increase and preserve this light in my soul so that I may avoid evil, be zealous in the performance of good works, and abhor nothing so much as the blindness and the darkness of evil and of sin.  By your intercession with God, obtain for me perfect vision for my bodily eyes and the grace to use them for God's greater honor and glory and the salvation of all men.  Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. Amen.

Visit the 2012 Santa Lucia Day Link-up at Catholic Cuisine 

to see more Saint Lucy Day Celebrations!

Best Birthday Gift Ever

Remember how I mentioned that my husband had been able to surprise me with an awesome birthday gift?

Well, this past weekend, we cashed that gift in.

My beloved hubby, he got me a babymoon.   

He watched deal sites for a few weeks and found a sweet little getaway for us in southern Colorado, tucked in a valley and hemmed in by mountains, in a town full of art galleries and good food.

The bed in our little suite was so high off the ground that Daniel had to give me a hand anytime I wanted to climb into it (for real, climb).  It was also like sleeping on a soft, fluffy, happy, cloud... and I spent a good portion of our weekend napping in it. 

And when we weren't exploring the surrounding mountains (by car... because I'm 30 weeks pregnant and the wind still nearly knocked my rather substantial self over), snoozing in that fluffy cloud, doing a little Christmas browsing in the local shops and art galleries, or eating fantastic food (which I will make sure to discuss at the bottom of the post for my foodie sister), we curled up on the couch in our little living area and watched Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives... because it was always on, entertaining, and easy to walk away from when we found something more interesting to do.

 

Our last morning, we awoke to a blanket of snow and flakes continuing to drift into the courtyard and town.  While it made for a bit of a tricky drive out of the valley both to Mass and back home to see our sweet Nugget (she was thoroughly spoiled by Nonna and Papa for the weekend), it was a beautiful sight to wake up to.

Should it be of interest, our yummy meals are below.  Should it not be of interest... just skip to the last paragraph.

1st Night Dinner at the Inn: I had steak, with some kind of mashed beans (there where whole beans as well, I'm not sure what the exact make-up of it was), and delicious veggies on the side.  Daniel had a surf and turf over mashed turnip (we think) that he raved over.  

Breakfast: Ryus Ave Bakery: They are only open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so we were pretty excited after reading the awesome reviews online that we were there one of the days they are open.  It was lovely.  Coffee (for hubby), hot chocolate for me, a (free!) cranberry coffee cake on my plate and a pecan cinnamon roll on his.  And then,  because we were feeling a bit extravagant, we bought an almond roll to round it out.  So. good.

Lunch: Next Door Deli: Tiny little place, delicious sandwiches!  I had a cubano (only without cheese, because I'm odd like that) and Daniel had... hmm... I don't remember, but it was a sandwich and it was good :).  

Dinner: Alys': Oh. my.  This was by far the best meal "experience."  It's set up in the living room of a former home, so there are less than 10 tables.  Alys wanders through periodically to check up on you and your meal comes in three amazing courses.  I had the best salad I have ever eaten (seriously, I want their house vinaigrette for every salad I ever eat), chicken marsala over linguine, fresh squeezed tangerine juice (because she noticed I was pregnant and not drinking while Daniel had wine and offered, "I just squeezed some tangerine juice, would you like some?" YES!) and pear and walnut cake to round it out.  Oh. my.  Daniel had a buffalo sausage and potato soup, steak of some kind and tiramisu.  We were both very happy customers when we left.  

The best part about this little trip was that my hubby and I had time to just be.  We adore being a family and the time and energy we put into our sweet girls, but we also recognize that maintaining a healthy marriage makes our family that much stronger.  I have a hard time leaving our Nugget, and I'm grateful that my hubby knew that and found something close and short-term, but still just for us.  Happy Birthday to me! 

St. Nicholas Day

We celebrated St. Nicholas day quite happily again this year.  Anni got the traditional oranges and gold coins in her stocking (representing the gold that St. Nicholas brought to the three sisters for their dowry) as well as the non-traditional Annie's fruit snacks and a few little Beatrix Potter books (dollar aisle at Target... score!  Anni loves new books).

Last year I bought a whole box of candy canes (to represent St. Nicholas' staff as he was a bishop)... but we only used a few, they were a sticky mess, and Anni found them for the year to come.  Instead, I did a little pinteresting research and made her a staff shaped breakfast out of strawberries and bananas.  Despite her seriously concerned face below, she thought it was pretty great. 

And then?  We were off to our mom's group!  As you can see behind her, our little Christmas tree is just barely decked out. We are slowly decorating it as we move through Advent, and while we don't have all of our Jesse Tree ornaments, we do have a few and are just hanging them on our regular tree after reading their coordinating Bible verses.  Anni's loves to pick out the ornaments and where they'll hang.  Her favorites thus far are the teddy bar ornament she picked out for herself and a little bell ornament that she takes off several times a day to ring and dance.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Experiences

Sometimes, our days get a little monotonous.  I try to get work done, Anni rightfully pulls me into books and building towers and I half pass out on the bed out of pregnancy exhaustion while she draws (hopefully just on paper).  Last week, I tried to create little experiences for us.  Nothing big, nothing crazy, but things we could both smile about at bedtime. 

One day it was hanging up window clings (thank you, last year's self for buying them on sale and tucking them away in our Christmas box)... they've been up for a few days and are a little worse for the wear as a certain two-year-old "fixes" them whenever the fancy strikes her.

I told her snowflakes are supposed to be random and unique, so she can move them as much as she wants.  I had to swallow some of my OCD tendencies for that, but I'm glad I did.

It's amazing to get to slowly uncover her beautiful, blossoming little personality.  Apparently that personality includes a knack for very passionate harmonica playing.

Oh, and baby lovin'.  I walked into her room after lunch one day to find her cuddled up with her baby and a little blankie, just a-rockin' away.  What a little mama!

There's something about the kosher section at our store... it just kind of sucks me in.  I found these little tea biscuits there and... oi-la!  Tea-time with my Anni (apple juice counts as tea in this case). 

I won't tell you how many we ate, because it's kind of disturbing.  I don't regret it. 

I know these are the years she won't remember well when she's an adult... but I hope one or two of these little experiences stick with her.  I have a feeling tea-time with mommy may be a new tradition either way.

I really wasn't lying about the baby lovin'.  After trying to figure out how to carry one baby while pushing her lamb in the stroller, I introduced her to baby wearing.  This girl is hooked and it makes me smile every time she asks me to put Nursey (her "big sister" doll) in the blankie so they can go for a walk.

By the end of the week, I was running out of happy little ideas for us as my iron supplements turned my stomach into an unhappy storm of raging nausea.  Luckily, we had something pretty happy on the schedule already.  Getting to see our sweet Lil' Bit!  Because of my high-risk status and some fluid pockets in her little kidneys, we had a 28 week ultrasound.  Luckily, I look no closer to going into labor (I can't tell you how good that felt to hear!), my placenta has shifted to a safer location, Lil' Bit is growing well and, while we still have to watch her kidneys, the pockets aren't of a size that needs a whole lot of concern at this point.  Anni informed us she would like to hold her baby sister, but was satisfied with a few new pictures for the time being. 

Here's to the little moments, my friends.  I hope you have some lovely ones this week!  Happy Advent!