What I've Been Up To.....

I've been spending almost every afternoon at the new/old house:

Painting ~trying to finish up the "cutting in" part of it. I'm sure there will still be plenty left to do after we've moved in........but a good part is done.

Cleaning. ~Lots of cleaning. I've already worn one pair of gloves to shreds. And my hands are so stiff it makes typing (and piano playing:) quite a challenge. There is so much still left to be done, but I am trying not to think about it. As a good friend said, "It will all happen." And she's right. It will.

So right now, I want to forget it all and just focus on preparing for the beautiful feast of Christmas.
I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and New Year. I will remember you (at least everyone I know who reads this and/or has ever commented) at midnight Mass on Christmas morning.
Please keep me and my family in your prayers.........who knows, perhaps the next time you hear from me we will be all moved in! :)

Christmas Cookies

It's Official.....

....we are moving into our new/old house the end of next week.

Exciting, and crazy all at the same time.

So packing has begun.

And I started on the toys first.

I know.

I'm such a mean mom;) 

Busy Day

Tatting up a (Snow)Storm

Well, perhaps seven snowflakes don't quite qualify as a snowstorm....;)

Our family's annual Christmas party (on my father's side) is on Saturday, and I was trying to come up with a gift idea for the ladies that was nice and yet fit within our budget. Inspiration struck, and I came up with these simple tatted snowflakes. The plan is to starch them, weave a ribbon through each, and voila! ~They become pretty little bookmarks!

Four down.......three to go!

Radicchio?!!!!

I can't believe what I found in the garden today, when I went to empty the compost bucket!!!!

I planted radicchio early this spring, and when it never came up I just assumed that I had bought a bag of bad seeds. 

 Wonders never cease......

One!

My sweet Blue turned one today!

We won't be celebrating until tomorrow, as my Knight doesn't arrive home until late tonight. So, I must be off to finish up the baby sized-cupcakes (baked in mini-muffin pans) for tomorrow.

 ~Perhaps, if I hurry, I can have them all done before he wakes from his nap! :)

The Finished Pinata

.....mere hours before the children "had at it" this past Sunday. (We ended up doing most of our feast day celebrations a day early as my Knight had to leave on business first thing Monday morning.......and he won't be back till late Wednesday night.) If you use your imagination, you may be able to tell that it was supposed to be a rose;) What fun! And I am glad that I took the extra time to make the construction a bit sturdier.......the boys were quite lethal with the bat! It was really amusing to compare their mode of attack to Miss Posy's. For all our coaching and encouragement, she never did more than deliver gentle taps;) What a silly girl.

To Mommy

Precious.

The Greatest Gift

"Humans greet you with words;

but God, with His Only Word,

and while humans may favor you with gifts that are personal,

God gives you a Gift who is a Person!"

~Rev. Fr. Raymond, O.C.S.O.,

in Love Does Such Things, God's Christmas Gift To Man

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

"For she is a vapour of the power of God,

 and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God:

 and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her.

For she is the brightness of eternal light,

 and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty,

and the image of His goodness."

~Wisdom 7, 25-26



Homemade Pinata

.....in preparation for the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe. It is our fourth year of doing this, and I think the children anticipate making it every bit as much as they do destroying it! Last year we ran out of time and didn't get it painted, but I am hoping to do better this year. I will try to remember to post a picture of it, once it's completed!

It Came Last Night

"Then, just when no one was looking, it came. One flake, two flakes, five, eight, ten, and suddenly the air was filled with soft powdery snowflakes, whispering quietly as they sifted down."

~from White Snow Bright Snow,

by Alvin Tresselt

~It was so lovely to wake up this morning to a house filled with bright snow-light!

Have a happy feast day!

Gone!

All of our lovely snow is gone........after almost two days of steady rain.

But I am trying to follow the example of my little feathered friends.

Despite the gloomy weather, they are keeping quite busy..

and quite cheerful!

I love watching them.

So, the children and I are busily and (for the most part;) cheerfully preparing for the feast of St. Nicholas tomorrow. There are sugar cookies to be made, and general tidy~ing up to be done. And laundry. The children have already set their Sunday shoes by the front door, and are trying hard to be extra good........especially since St. Nicholas will be making a special appearance tonight after dinner.

No one wants to find straw in his shoes tomorrow morning......;)

Another Favorite Quote....

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

~Oscar Wilde

Laundry

Silent and Somnolent

I think I forgot to mention that by ten o'clock on Monday night about a foot of snow had fallen ( ~in less than ten hours!!!)

Breathtakingly beautiful.

We are loving it!

Ichthus

This was our dinner last night, to honor the feast of St. Andrew. I had forgotten to pick up fish......but it didn't stop me from making one.......(~even if it turned out to be stuffed with chicken;). I remembered an extra pie crust I had frozen from Thanksgiving, and started from there. It turned out every bit as well as I hoped it would........and the children got a lesson from my Knight on the Greek alphabet too!:) Perfect!

I'll have to remember this for next year.