Cottage Blessings

Merry Christmas

from our home . . . .

to yours!

[With Theresa rapidly catching up to Agnes in height--and Margaret not far behind--I realized this might be our last chance for a "stair-step" photo.  Wish we'd taken one every year!]

Straight from Heaven

A precious new son for Suzanne at Blessed Among Men!

December 17, 2008

What do you do when your best friend has an extremely important birthday 3,500 miles away from you? 

Why, you throw her a party, of course! 

Here are some of our lovely local mothers, on hand for our Annual Tea and Rosary (held in the recently thatched cottage). Many of these dear women have never even met Lissa (who left New York in January 2002), but they love her just the same! Happy Birthday, dear Lissa! We love you!!!  It is never too late to move back to New York.  I am sure you are missing the snow down there in San Diego.

[By the way, this post was planned for late Wednesday night, but my internet connection promptly went out. Thank goodness the repairman was able to get me back online today.]

Candlelight

Margaret and Marie to the rescue

The other day I mentioned that we could not find our Advent wreath in the garage this past Sunday. We have been lighting a single purple candle in a glass candleholder all week. Imagine my surprise when I woke from an afternoon nap (an essential afternoon nap) to find this gorgeous wreath handmade by Margaret (11) and Marie (9)! They gathered greens, miniature pinecones, and tender sprigs of holly from our yard and created their own hidden candle holders from inverted and trimmed plastic cups.

The candles are handmade as well, so the entire creation is all theirs this year.

Maureen approves!

The more things change,

the more they remain the same. This seems to be our Advent pattern over the years, adding new traditions here and there, but mostly returning to our usual "Advent Festivities," the nightly ritual we've had (it seems like) forever.

Our Advent wreath could not be located from the garage (very, very typical for us), so we lit a single purple Advent candle, made a couple of weeks ago from a kit by Illuminated Ink.

We sang our usual hymns in our usual order: O Come, O Come Emmanuel; The King of Glory; Ding Dong Merrily on High (I know, this isn't an Advent hymn, but its been in the line up for over ten years now!); Lo, How a Rose E'r Blooming; and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.

We found our Jesse Tree in Miniature, along with all its ornaments. Nice to have it all ready without any fuss.

For Day One: the "Alpha and Omega."

Daddy hung this holy water font. It's been sitting on the window sill since I purchased it for Marie's Communion in April 2007. As he drove a nail into the dining room wall, Daddy quipped, "Just remember, if you want anything done, I'll get right on it . . . in about two years."

We lit the first of twenty-four candles in our Advent log, a relatively new tradition we learned from Rebecca.

Old hands helped the inexperienced in opening chocolate Advent calendars.

Maureen had the first turn to blow out the Advent candle.

Better than anything else, all the children were full of joyous anticipation. Is it any wonder this is our favorite time of year?