Overheard

Me walking into the boys bedroom: Hey, where's Luke?

Lee: Oh, he's under the bed.

Voice from under the bed: no I'm not!

Merry Christmas!!

It is a cold, rainy day and we actually had to wake the kids up! Everyone got dressed and we went downstairs together. After we had a good peek at some gifts we went to Mass and everyone was well behaved. Jake loved the organ today and after Mass he thought he would go tell the organist what a good job he did :)

We are home now and Jojo and Gampy are here and we opened presents and ate some yummy french toast casserole, cheese grits, monkey bread and sausage casserole. We are stuffed and putting batteries in things and untying all the toys, freeing them from their plastic prison cells! Lee says he needs some bandaids because his fingers are sore from untwisting all the ties. Poor baby.

Christmas Eve

Whew, we made it!

We left on Friday for a whirlwinod trip to Knoxville, Tennessee to visit with relatives. We stayed with my Nana and Grandad. My sister and her husband surprised us by coming up for the weekend too. It was awesome to see aunts and uncles and cousins etc...It is something we look forward to all year, even if we do not spend Christmas Day together, just seeing them this time of year is a favorite tradition.

On the way home we stopped at my in-laws, had Christmas eve dinner (tenderloin a la Martha Stewart, yum!) and opened some gifts.

Now we are at home settling the kids down and then doing what millions of parents all over the country are doing: assembling toys!

Lee is busy putting together a beautiful wooden stove/sink kitchen thing for the girls and I am trying to wrap some gifts. Anyone have any ideas on how to wrap a spiderman kickball?

Merry Christmas to everyone!

*sigh*

A good friend just lost her daughter at 25 wks. I am just so incredibly sad for them.

She is doing as well as can be expected and all of the details (scheduling surgery, memorials, what to say to friends and aquaintences etc..) seem to be helping her get through for now.

She has to have a c-section and man, that just seems awful, that she has to have surgery. Another friend pointed out, in a kind thought, that the scar will always serve as a reminder of her daughter. I burst into tears reading that. What a precious reminder of life!

I think about my own 'twin skin' stretch marks on my stomach and the c-section scar. I have not worn my scars bravely and proudly, but I should, shouldn't I?

No matter how big these kiddos get, no matter if they outlive me or if they don't, those scars, those silvery lines are like a natural version of a tatoo, a gentle proof. I am not saying I am hopping into a bikini or buying some crop tops, but I should not feel ashamed of them. I should not feel less feminine or womanly because of them. How ironic that some very physical evidence of my femininity, my motherhood has caused me self-loathing or embarrasment.

Please pray for my friend M and her husband and two young girls.

Good Busy

Things have been busy around here. Busy in a good way, although I do have to stop and pray and remind myself to sit back and enjoy the business, not try to get through it faster.

This year is the first year I have tried very, very hard not to get so wrapped in the to do list that I miss out on the experience of doing the list becasue I am so distracted just trying to check things off.

Mary Clare has been sick (upper respiratory infection) and has had so much mucus that she coughs, gags and throws up occasionally. (sorry for the gross out) She has been so healthy and this really is her first time being sick since we came home. In a way, it has been a blessing because nothing forces you to slow down the pace of family life like a sick little one.

So between poor sick MC and me consciously trying to chill out, these past 2-3 weeks have been wonderful for us all, despite the general seasonal busy-ness Advent. Even with a sick baby, imagine that!

Las Posadas

Isn't this so neat! We are going to this tonight. So today we have read:




Las Posadas is just a wonderful tradition. Plus looks like there will be some good eatin'!

New Diet?

Could someone please fill me in on the new diet where you eat unlimited garlic bread 4 days a week without gaining weight, but actually losing it? I really would love that. Thanks!

Not a big surprise

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas

For you, it's all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

We sure do love the cheese around here.

HT: Margaret

Advent traditions

This is our Advent wreath that is on a table in the living room. This is before I added the pink and purple ribbons to the candles.



This is our North Pole village. My mother in law has maybe 4 sets of different miniature villages like this and she gave us a whole set several years ago. It is a total pain to set up, but the kids really enjoy it. The red stocking is The Jesus Stocking, a new tradition this year

Our Jesse tree sits on our front hall table. Last year I made the ornaments for the first two weeks and then I stopped. This year we will complete the ornaments! We also have a beautiful Advent calender from the Metropolitan Museum of Art sitting on the box that holds the Jesse Tree ornaments.


Another new tradition is our Advent Log. Because our wreath is in the living room, we only light it on Sundays. We have the log in the family room and have been lighting it to say our family prayers at night. Unfortunately, the candles are burning down so fast! I will get some better ones next year.



This is the beginning of our own children's creche. The "Jesus Box" is what Laine calls it! Joesph and a donkey are pictured, and we now have a sheep and 3 wise men too. This week we'll add some more figures.

Important to me

Mary Clare has now been with us for longer than she was not. We met her April 5th 2006. For some reason, I have been waiting for this milestone. It is just important to me. I also think about when I will be 43 and I will have been married to Lee longer than I had not been. Quirky, no?

Anyway, she has changed so much and just making this slide show brought me to tears remembering all we have been through together and thinking on what we missed. This sweet girl has brought so much joy into our lives, I simply cannot imagine our family without her.

I asked the Jake and Ryan the other day, lightly and out of the blue, "So, do you like having a baby sister?"

"Oh yes!" they both immediately said as they were kissing and smooshing her as they tumbled out of the van. That was it. A brief little moment in time that made me catch my breath and squeeze my eyes to try and cement it in my memory.

Enjoy the slide show and be amazed with me.

Nativity Play

Last Friday the Jake and Ryan were in our homeschool co-op Nativity Play. Jake was a camel.

I am pretty proud of this camel costume. My sister gave me the idea to use the foam. Amazing, isn't it? Staples, pom poms and glue and voila! a cute goofy camel!

Ryan was a sheep, a black sheep. The director assured us this was not type casting. He is the last one on the right. His costume was not as fancy, black sweatpants and shirt and a cotton ball mask.

Both boys remembered their lines and I could actually hear them, identify their voices, in the audience. My parents were able to come to the play too. After the play, there was food, of course, and familes decorated Advent wreaths to donate to the Our Lady of Peretual Help Free Cancer Home, a hospice center really. I hope these wreaths will bless all of the residents this Advent season.

Messing with blogger beta

Surprise! yes, it is still me. I have been messing with blogger beta to personalise this little ol' blog.

I also have been wanting to change my blog title. We really do live on a cul-de-sac that has a gorgeous old magnolia tree right in a middle circle. I love that tree and I love having this cul-de-sac where my kids play for hours and hours. The tree also holds our red baby swing that Mary Clare loves to be pushed on.

I do let the kids climb the tree though the grandparents (and maybe other neighbors?) are a wee bit disapproving. It is a tree just begging to be climbed though! I also let the kids ride their bikes around the very flat circle without their helmets. If they go into the regular road around the neighborhood, I make them put them on. Geez, I didn't mean this to become a true confessions of a neglectful mother post, but I am in the mood to divulge.