Advent

Advent is here again.  I feel as though I just prepared for Easter and now its Christmas! 

We are doing the Advent wreath again this year. We are using the leftover candles so we can finish them up before I open the new set.

 We are also doing a Jesse Tree.  OK, so I have decided this Jesse Tree tree is REALLY ugly.  I am NOT an artist and I surely wasn't at my peak when I made this.  It is lopsided as well.  I sat down and gazed at it for a bit when I put it up.  I decided it is a lot like me.  I am not ugly or lopsided (Dirk - no comments from you!), but at times my soul is ugly with sin and my priorities are lopsided.  Advent is a time of preparation for the birth of Our Lord.  It is a time to clean our souls of the sin and get our focus back on Jesus.

 These are some of the Jesse Tree ornaments we will hang on the tree.  They represent a story in the Bible.  Each story is suppose to teach us something or inspire with God's continual forgiveness.  Our tree will fill up with these beautiful (in theory, maybe not appearance) examples of God's gifts to mankind.  My soul will fill up with these inspirations.  They will help fix my ugly and lopsided soul by reminding me to work on those habits and misguided priorities that keep my soul and body from loving God.

 Another project we are doing this Advent is picking a person or animal present at the stable in Bethlehem.  The animal or person is to give us an example to follow that week.

 This week I picked the OX.  I am to cheerfully accept each task that is assigned to me.  At first I thought - "Well, DUH - I do dang near all the tasks around here as it is."  OK - not a cheerful attitude to have.  I guess that was my first attempt of follow the way of the OX, by cheerfully accepting my card.  Next I thought about the fact that my children and my husband are, in fact, tasks I have been given.  Taking care of their needs is ultimately my purpose at the moment.  So that got me thinking - "Do I cheerfully accept my children, my husband?"  "Do I cheerfully accept their requests?"  Most times, yes.  Sometimes, no.  I'd love to say that all week long (what we are on Wednesday?) I have been cheerfully accepting of my children and their requests or of my husband and his requests.  I have not.  I have already lost my temper, refused to do a job that Darren asked me to do (hey, it was his job! - yikes - cheerfully, cheerfully!), and selfishly attended to my own desires instead of my sweet little ones.  I haven't really succeeded, but I have not failed either.  I realize that I cannot change in three days, but I am more likely to see my faults when I do not act cheerfully.

In order to Keep Christ in Christmas, we are also doing the daily activities on www.holyheroes.com and studying the Tridentine Mass.  Each day we are learning a little about what the Mass is and the different parts of the Mass.  I am hoping to instill in them the love for the Mass that the saints in heaven had while they were on earth.  The Mass is the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.

The last activity we are doing this Advent is of course.....drum roll.....CHOCOLATE ADVENT CALENDARS!!  Yes, no Advent is complete without the daily dose of chocolate.  I, being the meanest, most rottenest mommy in the world, placed an obligation upon each of my children.  Before they can eat their piece of chocolate they must tell me one thing they are thankful for.  We are writing them on white paper tags and putting either red or gold string on them.  When we decorate our Christmas tree we will hang all 24 times 6 tags on our tree to show all the things we are thankful for.  

 Here is an example of what the boys are thankful for:

Blase #3 The Holy Mass

Stephen #4 Aunts

Cormac #5 Jesus

Rex #1 Dad

Brech #1 Angels

Gianna is too young, obviously, to tell us what she is thankful for.  Her grunts are hard to translate.  She would be grateful for a handful of things over and over again (Jesus, Daddy, Mom, cracker, nose).  So we decided that she needed help.  We ask her each night who should write down something to be thankful for - Dad or Mom.  She usually names only one of us.  Either Darren or I write down something WE are thankful for.  It has worked out nicely.  Gianna gets her chocolate and Mom and Dad get to be thankful on paper.

Tonight the boys are NOT SO PATIENTLY (I have had three boys bother me during this post.) waiting for St. Nicholas to come tomorrow.  The boys decided this year they would put out their boots since they are bigger.  Maybe St. Nicholas would bring more gifts if the shoes were bigger.  Hummmm.  And what is Mom and Dad's boots doing there??  When asked that question it was mentioned that Dad is getting a pistol and "What do you want Mom?"  Dad is NOT getting a pistol for St. Nicholas's Day because St. Nicholas does not have a dealer license and cannot purchase firearms or transport them over the state lines without the proper documentation.  That seemed to satisfy the boys for now.  I'm sure when St. Nicholas brings Mom and Dad nothing tomorrow there will be disappointed boys for exactly 10 seconds.  At that point they will realize that they have gifts in their boots and who really cares about poor Mom and Dad anyway.  They are adults and have everything they could possible need.