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On the Seventh Day of Christmas…

31 Dec 2006 by Sharon

…we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family.  One thing your family can do this day is consecrate yourselves to the Holy Family.

 O Jesus, our most loving Redeemer, Who having come to enlighten the world, with Your teaching and example, willed to pass the greater part of Your life in humility and subjection to Mary and Joseph in the poor home of Nazareth, thus sanctifying the Family that was to be an example for all Christian families, graciously receive our family as it dedicates and consecrates itself to You this day. Defend us, guard us and establish among us Your holy fear, true peace and concord in Christian love: in order that by conforming ourselves to the divine pattern of Your Family we may be able, all of us without exception, to attain to eternal happiness.

Mary, dear Mother of Jesus and Mother of us, by your kind intercession make this our humble offering acceptable in the sight of Jesus, and obtain for us His graces and blessings.

Saint Joseph, most holy Guardian of Jesus and Mary, assist us by your prayers in all our spiritual and temporal necessities; that we may be able to praise our divine Savior Jesus, together with Mary and you, for all eternity.

Our Father, Hail Mary and Gloria three times.

 

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On the Sixth Day of Christmas…

30 Dec 2006 by Sharon

…I want to share with you a book that Adam bought for me and the kids.

Will You Bless Me?

Will You Bless Me? is a heart warming book written by Neil Lozano (no relation) and illustrated by Ben Hatke who also illustrated Angel in the Waters. The story is about a blessing and a young daughter’s question of “what is a blessing?”  The dad pulls out a book about the Holy Family and gives us a snapshot of Jesus as a young child asking his mother, Mary, to tell him the story of his birth, the gifts from the wise men, and angel Gabriel’s visit.  All the while, Joseph is filled with such joy listening to Mary impart these storys about Jesus’ real Father.

One of my favorite parts of the story is when Jesus asks his mom to show him the gifts.  Then he asks what happened to the gold.  Joseph chimes in with a wink to Mary that maybe God knew they would need it on their vacation to Egypt!  I also loved the fact that it promoted dads giving blessings to their children.  A blessing from a child’s father is so so special, I hope this book inspires more dads to bless their children every day. 

Lozano and Hatke do a mavelous job of giving us a glimpse into those hidden years of the Holy Family and helping us to understand and realize how special a blessing is.

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On the Fifth day of Christmas…

29 Dec 2006 by Sharon

…my true love gave to me…the opportunity to serve him and let him take a day (mostly) off from all my honey-do’s. 

While my honey was sleeping in, the kids and I had a delightful time reading some of our new books.  He spent the greater part of the day reading.  And he graciously ran a couple of errands for me.

So, those Ikea shelves are something else!  They sure do hold a lot of stuff!  I even had room to spare to rearrange some of our clutter!  Thanks to the Shearers for the idea as they have a couple of them in their home. 

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On the Fourth Day of Christmas…

28 Dec 2006 by Sharon

…my true love gave to me…a new bookcase to be the new home to a ton of kid toys, and a lunch date with my good friend Alexis sans enfants (without the kids). 

We went to Mass to celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents.  Then Adam when to pick up our new organizational bookcase from Ikea. In his brute strength of two men (because the directions say it take two people to assemble), he managed to put it together while I made dinner. 

We may actually be organized by the time Mom and Dad Gretencord come in January! Hurrah!

With the nice weather–high today was 69 degrees–Adam went out for a wonderful bike ride and Therese and I managed to squeak a walk in.  Blessed be God for sending us these lovely days in December!

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On the Third Day of Christmas…

27 Dec 2006 by Sharon

….my true love gave to me, an extra shelf in our laundry room and two hours to get a hair cut and do some shopping.   And I gave him a hot tip on where to find a stud finder.

Adam built a much needed extra shelf in our laundry room.  With some help from St. Joseph, he got it done this afternoon without any major damage to him or our house. 

 

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On the second day of Christmas…

26 Dec 2006 by Sharon

…I got to sleep in and go to the gym while my husband took charge of our two turtle doves!  When I got home, I was greeted with the words of appreciation, “I don’t know how you do it.  How do you ever get anything done?”

Don’t you just LOVE Christmas?  It’s so pleasant and full of the Spirit when you actually WAIT to celebrate Christmas instead of starting the day after Halloween. One of the ladies at the gym said, “I’m so glad Christmas is over.”  And in a cheerful voice I just said, “What do you mean?  We still have 12 days left.”  I love Christmas…

So these fine Christmas days while Adam is off from work will be filled with playing with the new toys, watching all our new movies, some honey-do’s, and sleeping in! 

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My Practical Wife

25 Dec 2006 by Adam

Thérèse (pointing to mistletoe hanging outside a store): What’s that mommy?

Sharon: It’s a fungus. And people are weirdos for wanting to hang it above their doors!

Mistletoe is a parasite actually, but that doesn’t make it any less gross!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Birthday Boy Update

13 Dec 2006 by Sharon

Besides the fact that our strapping young man loves cakes and pancakes, I wanted to give you a little bit of an updates on the happenings of our little guy. 

He’s still not walking on his own, but boy can he crawl at lightning speed.  He’s inherited Adam’s metabolism as he remains in the 20th percentile in weight despite the fact that he can easily pack away almost 6 pancakes at breakfast.  (He out eats EVERYONE!)  Monday morning he woke up screaming at the top of his lungs.  That night and every night since then, he’s been waking up every two to four hours in unpleasant screams….It turns out that for his birthday his top 4 teeth decided to come in. He and I could use a good night’s sleep.  Despite that, he’s still as happy as can be. He lets me have afternoons with Therese while he gets a 3 to 4 hour nap.  And he kindly lays down when I put him in the crib for naps and bedtime with little or no fuss.  He’s a little angel.

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Always Room for Cake

12 Dec 2006 by Adam

After smashing his personal record by consuming 5-1/2 pancakes earlier in the day, Fulton couldn’t pass up his first piece of cake. Happy first birthday little man.

Fulton Cake

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St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

06 Dec 2006 by Sharon

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!!!

We had the best day of Advent thus far.  Today we celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas.  I hope you found something fun in your shoes or stockings! 

We started the day with Mass and both of our beloved children were just wonderful during the whole thing!  Thank you St. Nicholas!  We picked up Adam from work around lunchtime and as a family engaged in a little work of charity which Therese and I had been preparing for about a week.  We watched the cartoon, “Nicholas, The Boy who Became Santa.” We got a surprise visit from the newlywed Nicholsons who were delivering St. Nicholas cookies–a tradition James’ family has been doing for many years–they have the best name day!  And tonight we looked inside our stocking to find the little treats and gifts left in the spirit of good ol’ St. Nick. 

After much discernment, we decided that the kids must know about St. Nicholas–the real St. Nicholas.  St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra (now Turkey) was a man of generosity.  He was a confessor, that is, although not martyred for his faith, he was imprisoned and was willing to die for his faith.  He gave all his wealth to the poor.    We pray that through the intersession of St. Nicholas, we and our children may grow in love with baby Jesus and that we may celebrate the spirit of St. Nicholas by giving generously to those in need.

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