Christmas--Part I

Okay, with all the action going on around here, I've not been able to keep up with the blog. We've been too busy living our lives to document it. Apologies to all! I promise to try to catch up by next week. In the meanwhile, I'm going to post a few photos:




Hunter's homemade Saint's sign. Unfortuately her fantastic creativity didn't secure the win for the boys in black and gold. We are sad that playoffs are no longer a possibility. There's always next year.

Dad puts the angel atop the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. We all took turns putting on ornaments and bows. Hunter and I drank tons of eggnog and sang Christmas songs.

The Holy Family continued to mysteriously travel around the house and "arrived" at the nativity stable Christmas Day. When Tim, Susan and Hunter each denied moving any of the figurines, Hunter decided to fingerprint us and see if there were any matching prints on them. Result: no fingerprints at all! Determination: the spirit of Christmas must be responsible!

We're in the Army now!

Well, Army crawling at least!

Bad Mama!

Xavier is right on the cusp of learning to crawl these days. He does a lot of rolling and scootching around on the carpet. Most of the time instead of pushing forward with his legs, he just keeps pushing himself backwards with his arms. He always seems a little perplexed that he is getting further from the object of his desire the more effort he puts towards getting closer to it. But the sweet disposition of this little boy can overcome all. I give you exhibit A:

Now I don't know which is more adorable: the fact that he has yet again found himself wedged under furniture or the fact that he managed to wait patiently while his laughing mama took a picture of the event for all posterity.

St. Nicholas Day

Tim and I have always given a lot of thought to the type of Christmas we would like to celebrate as a family. We don't want to let the Christmas merchandising machine take over what for us is a very special and spiritual time of year. Too many gifts, too much emphasis on Santa, too many things that you have to do. Here are some of the traditions we have thus far:


1. Observe Advent. Prior to Christmas Eve, we pretty much banish all things Christmas from our home and play up advent. We usually do a weekly prayer and scripture reading as a family as we light advent candles. The readings are a wonderful way to set up the anticipation of the birth of our Lord. There is a lot of references to light coming into the darkness and it just fits with the shorter days this time of year.





This year I also put up a wreath on our door. For the first two weeks of advent we have a purple bow, the third week we have pink, and then back to that last week of purple before Christmas.

For fun, during the last week or so, we set up the nativity scene in the living room (this year on the mantle). At first we just set up the barn and animals. Mary and Joseph "travel" around the house on that last week from room to room as they make their way to Bethleham. We have a lot of fun surprising each other with them in silly places. Mary and Joseph in the pantry. Mary and Joseph running off with the remote control. etc. On Christmas Eve they arrive at the barn.


2. Celebrate 12 Days of Christmas

Then on Christmas Eve, we decorate the tree and go to Mass. Mary and Joseph are in the nativity at that point. Christmas morning the baby Jesus appears as do the shepards and angels. After opening gifts, we go for a hike in the national park near our house. We continue to celebrate Christmas with food and Christmas decorations until Epiphany (Jan. 6). Oh, and after Christmas Day the three wise men statues start making their way across the house too.


At Epiphany the wise men make it to the nativity scene, we clean up the holiday decorations and celebrate with a King Cake.


3. St. Nicholas Replaces Santa Claus


This is our first year with kids in the house at Christmastime. In lieu of Santa we have decided to observe St. Nicholas Feast Day. So last night Xavier put his little shoe out for St. Nick to fill with a toy or goodie. St. Nicholas also left a letter complimenting him and his behaviour and giving a little hint as to what to keep working on (this will obviously become more relavent as he gets older).

As for Christmas gifts, we intend to keep it to three per kid...that's how many presents Jesus got. As a guide for the types of gifts, we've used the old Yankee poem:

Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
And something to read.


with a few modifications to get the number from four to three it has become:


Something you want,
Something you need,
Like something to wear,
And something to read.


Of course the kids will still get plenty of gifts from extended family and that is great. Our aim isn't to eliminate gifts altogether but to keep the primary focus on the meaning of the holidays. The best memories I have of Christmastime are of the small things we did together like making Chex mix with my mother, sneaking off to see the Pontchatoula aligator with my sisters, and bringing presents to other families.