2nd Annual St. Lucy's Day Tea Party!

Happy feast of St. Lucy!  We continued our family tradition this year and had a little tea party with a few of Anni's sweet little friends (and their mamas, whom I just happen to be friends with, too, of course).  And my sweet girls?  Aren't they about as darling as they come? 

This year I actually homemade some braided cinnamon bread (no saffron rolls, two loaves of the one baked good and a breakfast casserole was enough for me!)  It was yummy (and pretty... as long as you don't look where I tried to join the braid!)  

We lit some candles (Lucy does mean "light" after all) and sang "Happy St. Lucy Day to you" (yes, to the tune of "Happy Birthday").  I had also picked up some little battery operated candles in the dollar aisle, so every kid had their own candle to take home.

Oh, and this darling little sunshine?  Isn't that smile just the best?!

Happy St. Lucy's Day!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I realized last night, that, though I had known St. Nicholas day was coming and had grabbed a bag of chocolate golden coins at Target on my last stop there (could someone please make chocolate golden coins that taste good, by the way?!), I hadn't planned much further than that and had no oranges and no stocking for Colette.  She ended up getting the new one I bought for myself last year, and, we'll just see what she ends up with in the end.  Our staples for St. Nick's day are always chocolate (gold coins) and oranges to represent the gold that St. Nicholas dropped down the chimney of three poor sisters.  This year, each girl also got a fun little gift.  Colette got a "C" ornament and some puffs (instead of chocolate) and Anni got a mini ring sling for her babies!  (Really, I just couldn't wait to give her her little ring sling!)  The most excited reaction Anni had; though, was when she realized there were two oranges in her stocking.  Oh, happy day!

Advent

I love "getting into the spirit of things", so I was a little disappointed in myself when I felt like I had left fall pass me by a little.  Not that we did nothing, I just felt like we could have done more.  Luckily, being Catholic presents us with all kinds of other opportunities to celebrate the season.  Our new church year started on Sunday, and with it the Advent season.  I didn't realize until I was gathering everything that we are doing a little bit of everything this year.  We have an advent calendar, the advent wreath, a Jesse Tree (we just did an ornament exchange!) and an advent activity chain.  Whew!  In truth, none of these things is too time intensive, and Anni is at the perfect stage to soak it all up like a little sponge and, as a definite plus, she won't let me forget anything!

The ornament exchange was great annnnnd crazy!  A dozen or so mamas and many, many more kiddos hanging out in our little place eating and picking up their own set of ornaments.  I have to admit, my introverted self was definitely worn out by the end and ready for a break, but it was fun to get to host (and, one of my sweet friends organized it all and everyone else brought food, so I didn't have to do much at all)!       

Here they all are!  We only ended up with one no-show, which is pretty good with 28 sets of ornaments to be made by busy wives and mamas.

We also picked up this Advent calendar this year.  I actually haven't even looked at all of the symbols yet... it's going to be a surprise for me, as well, this year!

We've got our wreath ($5 at my home parish four years ago!  I picked up candles from them again this year since we were in Wichita, buuuuut all four broke when I put them on, so maybe I'll stick with the Hobby Lobby ones next year).  See more wreaths at Catholic Mom!

Last but not least, our Advent Activity Chain.  I picked it up from a lovely fellow blogger while I was in Wichita and it has worked really well with what we're already doing.  

Happy Advent!

Oops, a little update: I realized I hadn't mentioned our nativity set!  Our wise men are traveling from the window-sill and Mary and Joseph are traveling from the piano. 

Thanksgiving

There's been a whole lot of radio silence in these here parts, why, you ask?  Well, we decided to take a nine day road-trip through Kansas, ending in Wichita to spend time with my family for Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful, loud, and exhausting.  Actually, I admit that I feel surprisingly better than I thought I would at this point (we just did our 8ish hour drive home today) ... but I have a feeling it will sink in when people start arriving for the Jesse Tree ornament exchange tomorrow.

The trip really was wonderful, though.  We stopped at our alma mater to visit with some friends and soak in a little nostalgia (though, really, alma mater, why were you decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving?!  Boo!)  I got to see (and photograph, an added bonus!) some college friends of ours that lived out in DC until this year (meaning, Daniel saw them every year at a conference he goes to, but I hadn't seen them since our wedding and certainly hadn't met their darling twin boys!)   We also did a quick jaunt through the campus (oh, my, was it cold) and made sure to stop off at the grotto where Anni got very excited about the St. Bernadette statue (though she did wish that they had alllll the Saints).

Then came the insanity of my family all in one place!  There are 22 of us, including our brother's beautiful, sweet, fiance.  She is wonderful!

An entire beautiful meal was organized, made and eaten, even with one of our primary organizers off her feet with a very bruised and swollen foot (who knew that accidentally kicking a dresser could really slow you down?) 

The turkey was carved, places were set, the cousins antagonized each other... No, really.  Especially our Anni and her cousin who just happens to be about six weeks older than her.  At one point, before dinner even started, they got in a tussle over the completely imaginary food Anni was pretending to eat and spilled a drink.  Later, her cousin informed her there was no talking at the table, so, of course, she started singing "talking at the table, talking at the table".  Ah... good thing they love each other so much, too!

One of my brother-in-law's is part native american, so his girls all wore feathers in their hair to celebrate their heritage. 

We stayed with my sister on their homestead most of the week, which was truly wonderful.  Anni got to play with her cousins every minute we were there, I got to follow my big sister around (oh, how I already miss getting to spend so much time with her!), and I finally got an in-person introduction to their chickens.  There is not much that is better than a fresh egg!

Colette kept claiming that she was terrified of her godfather, but then, as he took a nap in the middle of the living room one day, she slowly worked herself up to sit between his feet.  She was quite pleased with herself!

We also got to celebrate my big brother's 30th birthday the day before we left!  I have been trucking away at the big ole project of putting together a book full of photos from his first 30 years, so I was grateful to have the book printed and in his hands. 

I shouldn't forget to mention... we took a big family photo!  Every time we are all together, I try to set the tripod up and capture as we grow.  This year we added two babies and a fiance!  You can see last year's here and the year before here.  We actually managed the photo without too much pain this year.  We did it first thing (before babies and adults had had a chance to melt down) and I tried not to be too picky.  Anni's not looking?  Oh, well, she's there!

 

 

I hope you all had beautiful thanksgivings and that your advents are off to a wonderful start!