This'n'That 1

Originally posted to Chez VH, December 18, 2010

Been too busy to post much lately, especially on Friday. So instead of 7 Quick Takes, we have simply a random jumble...

St. Lucy's Day!

Last Monday (already!) was St. Lucy's Day. Our kids LOVE our St. Lucy's Day traditions of making special buns and having the kids serve it to us (and eat it with us!) in our bedroom early on the morning of December 13th. We usually use the recipe from the Kirsten American Girl cookbook, which is quite good! Unfortunately we've lost the cookbook for the moment and decided to make a compromise. Terri baked Karen's St. Lucia Bread which seemed to work out quite well (I didn't eat any because of my gluten problem). Though it was on a Monday, John had to go into work late because of a meeting, so we enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast (the kids make sausages and hot cocoa to go along with the bread/cake). Unfortunately the camera battery was dead, so we don't have any pictures. We spread a vinyl Christmas-decorated tablecloth on our bed and gathered all around it. It's a lovely tradition!

Keeping it Clean

We got a new washing machine this week. A number of my friends have been extremely happy with a simple model (the one with the agitator) from Fisher Paykel, so we decided to give it a try. It's a top-loading high efficiency and the price was quite reasonable. It wrings the water out so well that the dryer (a basic GE model we bought a few years ago) is actually keeping up with the washer. The nicest part about this, aside from the fact that we might actually be able to keep up on the laundry, is that it looks like I'll get a chance to reduce our overall quantity of clothing as well. When you get behind on laundry, you end up needing more stuff and it easily becomes a vicious cycle.

Concerning Very Tall Trees

A few years ago we switched over to an artificial Christmas tree because of allergies. There were some tears from some of the kids, though, both because it wasn't a real tree (and there's nothing quite like a real tree!) and because the artificial tree was really small. Only five feet tall, but also pathetically skinny... we've been making do. This week because our parish is switching from having two Masses on Christmas Eve at the same time (one in the Church and one in the gym) to adding an extra Mass in Church, they were getting rid of some old, enormous, artificial Christmas trees that were no longer needed for the gym. We decided to give one a try - somewhat hesitant because they looked just awful, though it did have a nice sturdy-looking stand. We found a corner of the sunroom that was tall enough and got to work. It was a real mess - there were severed branches, branches extremely tangled with each other and a mess of lights tangled with the whole thing - partly from previous usage and partly to simply the hold the thing together. After quite a few man-hours, we got the mess untangled, reattached the severed branches, reshaped all of the branches (it was clearly a very nice tree once upon a time), added 1400 white lights (and it's still not quite full!), 100 unbreakable red bulbs and all of our odd collection of ornaments that we could find. It looks spectacular! Once I get around to recharging my camera battery, I'll try to post a picture. The kids are ecstatic about the new tree! :)

Books in Progress

As usual, I'm in the middle of reading quite a handful of books (none of them kids books at the moment, by any means, but all by Catholic authors). I started Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain and got distracted with Ron Hansen's Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which is quite fascinating and extremely well-written. I saw the movie first (which is quite good, but very psychologically intense, just so you know!), but it has so many missing pieces compared to the book - lots of exploration of the background and environment that created the legend. He's not at all "moralistic" about these topics, but just starkly brings them to light.

Advent Update

Advent stuff is going pretty well. We sit down to dinner *at the table* and light the advent wreath most nights. Jesse Tree usage has dropped off considerably this week and the kids catch up on the Advent DVD in chunks every week or so. One thing that's been going extremely well, is a new idea (we've been using it for two weeks, I think. We were getting into a slump school-wise and really needed to move in a different direction for awhile) that I'm calling "Advent School". We dropped our regular school schedule and I made a new list of things for the kids to do each day... (They have to check with me about how much of something qualifies).

• Prayer
• Read something fun and something religious each day for Advent/Christmas
• Art for Advent/Christmas
• Making Christmas Presents
• Baking/Cooking
• Clean House
• Decorate House
• Work on Christmas Music
• Work on Memorizing a Christmas Poem
• Earn 5 pieces of Straw Each Day (for a good deed or a helpful job)

Naturally they're also listening to lots of audio books like they usually do.

When someone joins me for Daily Mass, they automatically get two items on the list taken care of - prayer and 5 pieces of straw. Whatever it takes to motivate! Also, the Christmas Music has been a big part of our lives lately. Seven of us (everyone in the family but Frank) are in choirs that are working on Christmas Music (three of them are in two choirs!) and so it's been sounding a lot like Christmas around here for quite a few weeks already!

Preparing for Advent - This Morning

Originally posted on Chez VH, November 28, 2010

This is usually how it works for us. We have a LOT of stuff going on before Thanksgiving (like the Library Tree) and then we tend to go away for the entire Thanksgiving weekend. We get back and, bam, Advent is upon us. For this reason, I HAVE to keep my plans reasonably simple AND not allow myself to get stressed if things don't go perfectly or if I don't get everything started on day one.

My kids are all sleeping. They probably will be for awhile since we got home late last night AND Frank was sick during the night. So I'm making my plans to get Advent going this morning. I feel like I already have a jump start on our usual plans since I did manage to pull out the Advent volume of the Liturgy of the Hours for last night's Evening Prayer.

Here's what I hope to get done this morning:

1. Pull out our manger and leftover paper straw from last year.

My description of our manger tradition made it to Conversion Diary's "Baby Steps for Celebrating Advent" (which is a lovely collection of simple ideas!):

We have a simple wooden manger my father-in-law made for us years ago. It goes with an inexpensive baby doll. We cut up strips of yellow construction paper and the kids put a piece into the manger when they do a good deed. Baby Jesus arrives on Christmas Eve to a nice cushy manger.

And it really is the first (as in the most important to us) thing I think about setting up - even before the Advent Wreath.

2. Set up our Advent Wreath AND buy candles from a reliable local source (we'll be heading there today anyway). This also involves putting a few leaves in the table that we haven't been using for dinner lately (we usually eat around the kitchen counter, which has a lower counter for eating at).

3. Pull out the pink and purple construction paper so the kids can make their Advent chains.

4. I may or may not get some of the books and our Advent DVD pulled out while I'm getting the rest of the pieces together.

What I'll probably get to later:

1. Take out our Jesse Tree ornaments and put a Bible on the mantle for easy access to read the readings. We're always a bit hit-and-miss on this one.

2. Put the Nativity set stable out with the pieces that would be there initially - like the shepherds and animals - and place Mary and Joseph at the other end of the house to start their journey.

Later Still:

We get some things set up in time for special days during Advent. Our most consistent days for celebration are: St. Nicholas Day (hang stockings the night before), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (get to Mass, bake a cake), Our Lady of Guadalupe (try to get to Mass, have a yummy Mexican dinner) and St. Lucy's Day (the kids pretty much handle this one by baking late into the night on the previous night and waking us up early with breakfast in our room the morning of).

These are some lovely free print-outs I'd like to put together for our two youngest readers:

My Little Advent from O Night Divine

Jennifer also has a lovely collection of links and ideas here:

Advent from Family in Feast and Feria

P.S. The picture is of Frank posing with his Advent Chain last year. The chain has extra large links and makes Frank look like a midget! :) The kids cut and staple their chains themselves and, of course, take off one link each day until Christmas. They really love this tradition!

P.P.S. First child just woke up (8 year old Kate). I asked her if she knew what today was. She said, "Lent!". I waited for a second and she continued, "No, Advent!". I asked her what that meant we got to do today. She answered, "Make Advent chains!" She's working on it already. ;)

A Little of What I'm Up To....

(and partly why the blog suffers these days)

An interview I did (with my sister!) on homeschooling, published in an Italian Catholic newspaper:

Il Sussidiario.net | HOMESCHOOLING/ Educating Across the Generations

An upcoming homeschool conference I'll speaking at in March, 2010:

Blessed Sacrament Homeschool Conference, Memphis, Tennessee

Besides that we're managing to do most of our Advent traditions that I wrote about a few years ago, though I haven't begun to do anything about Christmas cards yet. Last year, I managed to flop on the Christmas Cards right in the middle of the stack and I may just pick up where I left off then.

Last week was one of those weeks where everything converged all on top of each other - First Reconciliation for Kate, an amazing Vivaldi Concert with some families from our homeschool group, SAT IIs for Ria, the National Geographic Bee, Catechism discussion, a language workshop for the kids, dance, and several choir and Shakespeare practices. Now suddenly, with the all the snow and activities tapering off before Christmas, we're having a rather peaceful lull.

A Blessed Advent to you all!

Marian Songs for Advent

Revised and updated (particularly with YouTube videos) from my original post in 2006.

It seems to me that it would be appropriate to emphasize Our Lady during Advent and hymns about her fiat and her pregnancy are most appropriate. (I did notice that "Castle of the Immaculate" has a post about a Marian theme for Advent). Here are a few of our favorite songs (still hope to find a few more resources to make these more accessible, I'll add them when/if I find them)...

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.

Beautiful listening:





The Angel Gabriel

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.



This is the version Sting performed about 20 years ago which re-popularized the song. I like the music, but not so much the video:



A more traditional rendition:




Alma Redemptoris Mater
(Marian antiphon for Advent)

Click to enlarge the music to this chant:
Here's a decent way to learn the traditional chant:



Palestrina's gorgeous polyphonic version:



More about Marian antiphons here

You may find this article from First Things interesting and relevant.

Advent Cuteness

I pointed out the priest's rose-colored vestments to Kate at Mass today and asked her why he was wearing those colors. She answered simply: "Because it's the Pink Sunday of Advent." :)

Well Begun is... Fortunately Not Always Necessary

Advent had a messy beginning around here. We arrived home from an out-of-state Thanksgiving trip on the first Sunday of Advent - exhausted and a little fluish. Though we weren't constantly sick for the next two weeks, we had our share of it (particularly last Sunday night when five people in our house - plus the dog! - got sick - only two of us were able to make it to Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - me and Frank!) on and off along with plenty of tiredness in between. Oh yeah, and because we've been working on insulating the attic, we started Advent with all of our Christmas stuff strewn all over "the another room". There wasn't much time for anything beyond setting up an advent wreath (which didn't get lit nearly every night).

We did manage somehow to get through our basic advent "projects" that we try to get to each year - the library tree, adopting a family from our Church's giving tree for a big food donation and delivering car seats, playpens, snowsuits, etc. from the same holiday tree to a pregnancy help center in Milwaukee. We enjoyed celebrating St. Nicholas Day of course (which, as you may remember, is celebrated by a large portion of the population in the Milwaukee area). But that was about it for almost two weeks.

Yesterday I was finally at a point where I could start catching up on our Advent. We've been getting the place cleaned up after all our chaos and now the dining room table isn't so smothered that it would be unsafe to light the advent candles! Terri managed to find our Jesse Tree ornaments (which are cut out of a book - can't remember the name right now) and which we've never managed to put up in their entirety. (We only started using them last year, though I think we owned them the previous year). Yesterday we hung up most of the ornaments for the days we missed (we hang them on our two rose bushes - which seems pretty appropriate, especially given the song "Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming").

Part of the reason that the Jesse Tree never got completed last year was that I never got around to punching holes in the ornaments and putting little ribbon hangers on them. Such is life around here sometimes! Today I finally picked up some ribbon and we have way more ornaments on the rose bushes now than we've ever had before. We may actually finish the entire thing for once. :)

I also picked up an interesting Advent Calendar DVD at the Holy Hill Gift Shop. It's not very Adventish in the "traditional" sense, but it offers a nice little way of preparing for Christmas by sharing interesting and sometimes touching little stories of Christmas related things - like the story of the writing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the World War I Christmas Truce, the origins of candy canes and other tidbits. The imagery is a little *loud* (fast paced and over-busy) but overall I really liked it and I think it would be particularly enjoyable for families who are just beginning to bring some more "rootedness" to their Christmas traditions.

This morning we enjoyed a very memorable little St. Lucy's Day celebration. We do usually bake St. Lucy's Day buns (from the Kirsten American Girl cookbook) but we just weren't moving enough for that yesterday. At 9 pm, when Terri reminded me about the buns, we decided that baking just wasn't going to work! (On top of everything else, John was out at a work-obligation until really late and Ria was at a lit class until late). So we made a quick run to the store for some nice pastry-cake things and decided to throw an extra treat into our morning celebration - sausages! The fun party this year was that because John was out, he didn't really hear about any of the plans and a surprise was definitely in the making. :)

At 6:45 (so nice that it was a Saturday this year - weekdays they have to get started a lot earlier!) all the kids except Frank got up and started their preparations (and pulled off the entire thing all on their own). Ria cooked sausages, Terri made hot cocoa (she's the expert in the family - we make it with yummy Ghiradelli cocoa powder), Bernie whipped together a paper wreath with paper candles (it was basically her turn to be the official presenter this year) and I'm not exactly sure what Gus and Kate did, but I know that they were all required to pull off the lovely little feast that we enjoyed about an hour later in our bed. Despite some spilled hot cocoa on the comforter (whoops!) and some crankiness from Frank (who wasn't quite ready to wake up) it was a lovely little party.

What it Means to be a Christian: Three Sermons by Cardinal Ratzinger

I'll probably have to re-read this book before I can give what I would consider an adequate review. And yet, I got so much out of the first reading that I wanted to jot some of it down.

This is a lovely, quick read (though very deep) that draws and challenges you out of yourself to see where you're supposed to be in relation to God and to others. It's a series of three sermons that were given by then Cardinal Ratzinger during Advent and are perfect reading for this season.

Here are a few quick quotes to give you a taste of what I mean:

When we reflect on such things, we shall simply no longer be able to divide history into ages of salvation and of iniquity. If we then extend our vision and look at what Christians (that is, those people we call 'redeemed') achieved in the world by way of iniquity and devastation, in our own century and the previous centuries, then we will be equally incapable of dividing the peoples of the world into those who are saved and those who are not. If we are honest, we will no longer be able to paint things black and white, dividing up both history and maps into zones of salvation and iniquity. History as a whole, and mankind as a whole, will appear to us rather as a mass of gray, in which time and again there appear flickers of that goodness which can never quite be extinguished, in which, time and again, men set out toward something better, but in which also, time and again , collapses occur into all the horrors of evil.

Yet when we reflect like this, it becomes plain that Advent is not (as might perhaps have been said in earlier ages) a sacred game of the liturgy, in which, so to speak, it leads us once more along the paths of the past, gives us once more a vivid picture of the way things once were, so that we may all the more joyfully and happily enjoy today's salvation. We should have to admit, rather, that Advent is not just a matter of remembrance and playing at what is past - Advent is our present, our reality: the Church is not just playing at something here; rather, she is referring us to something that also represents the reality of our Christian life. It is through the meaning of the season of Advent in the Church's y ear that she revives our awareness of this. She should make us face these facts, and make us admit the extend of being unredeemed, which is not something that lay over the world at one time, and perhaps somewhere still does, but is a fact in our own lives and in the midst of the Church.

And one more passage...

Being a Christian means having love; it means achieving the Copernican revolution in our existence, by which we cease to make ourselves the center of the universe, with everyone else revolving around us.

If we look at ourselves honestly and seriously, then there is not just something liberating in this marvelously simple message. There is also something most disturbing. For who among us can say he has never passed by anyone who was hungry or thirsty or who needed us in any way? Who among us can say that he truly, in all simplicity, carries out the service of being kind to others? Who among us would not have to admit that even in the acts of kindness he practices toward others, there is still an element of selfishness, something of self-satisfaction and looking back at ourselves? Who among us would not have to admit that he is more or less living in the pre-Copernican illusion and looking at other people, seeing them as real, only in their relationship to our own selves? Thus, the sublime and liberating message of love, as being the sole and sufficient content of Christianity, can also become something very demanding.

It is at this point that faith begins. For what faith basically means is just that this shortfall that we all have in our love is made up by the surplus of Jesus Christ's love, acting on our behalf. He simply tells us that God himself has poured out among us a superabundance of his love and has thus made good in advance all our deficiency. Ultimately, faith means nothing other than admitting that we have this kind of shortfall; tit means opening our hand and accepting a gift.

Beautiful!

The Nativity and the Cross

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes, we are healed.

(Isaiah 53: 3-5)

I was reminded of these words because of a Christmas mishap. The words are familiar to me from Handel's Messiah, but not the Christmas part - the part for Holy Week and Easter.

Here is how it happened...

John bought me a beautiful Nativity set for Christmas. We were at Sam's Club the week before Christmas and the set was half price, and reasonably within our budget. It's a gorgeous porcelain set with real fabric clothing and lots of interesting embellishments. It's also quite large - St. Joseph is nearly a foot tall! It includes a shepherd, sheep and a donkey (not pictured here). We decided that we could keep it safe on top of the piano or the "library table" in our sun room (really our family room). We knew that it would add a new and very meaningful element to our Christmas celebrations for years to come.

We brought it home and squirreled it away to set up on a Christmas Eve as a surprise for the kids.

Christmas Eve was a very busy, and rather tiring day We went to Saturday night Mass for our Sunday obligation, but the house (and time) were still filled with haircuts, finding clothes, photocopying music, finishing up homemade KK presents and many other things.

That night, John and I were so tired that we decided to sleep for a few hours, set the alarm, and get up in the middle of the night to set up the nativity set and such. So at 1 am we groggily rose and started putting things together. It turns out that clumsiness is heightened at that hour (go figure!) and I managed to bump into John while he was holding baby Jesus and the manger and he dropped both. Poor Baby Jesus - his head broke off and one leg was broken. The manger suffered some ill effects too. John and I just sat on the floor and stared forlornly at the broken pieces for some long moments.

As providence would have it, they were clean breaks. John was able to glue the head back on and the leg sits rather safely (though somewhat loosely) nestled in the swaddling clothes. The manger leg was glue-able also, though it is a little chipped along the crack.

And so everything worked out (although the spot we chose on top of the piano doesn't have any room left for the three kings - we'll have to figure out something for that before Saturday) . It's a beautiful set to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas and the kids have been incredibly good about not moving or bumping the pieces around (they do have our much smaller and unbreakable Fontanini set that they can move around as much as they like).

But now I will always be reminded of the Cross whenever I see our poor broken Baby Jesus.


While I'm on the subject of nativity scenes, please visit the Cottage Garden's "Creche in the Woods" for some wonderful photos of their outdoor nativity set.

The Challenge

Get through Christmas without using the credit cards.

The reward: make one major stride in getting financial boat in order for large things - like college - beginning to loom on the horizon.

Requirements:

1. Save some shopping for the last few days before Christmas (critical paycheck)
2. Buy Christmas Cards at 90% off at Target the previous year(well, that's kind of a coincidence)
3. Save some goodies from a wonderful Rummage Sale in the fall
4. Encourage the kids to make homemade gifts and do lots of baking
5. Read books like The Wind Blows Free and The Christmas Turtles which help reinforce #4
6. A certain amount of letting go of expectations and of keeping up with society's vision of Christmas preparations

And you know what? We're having a really wonderful Advent this year - not in spite of, but partly because of these things.

Narnia and a Christmas Symphony

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performed a Christmas concert at Holy Hill last night and we were given some tickets! I don't think I've ever been to the Symphony before (unless you count the Kinderkonzert in which Ria - then about 4 years old - and I hid in a telephone booth in the lobby because she was completely terrified of the noise level. Gus - then 2 - and his Dad sat very happily through the performance). Certainly nothing like this at least.

John and I sat in the second row - perhaps 8 feet from the conductor and 12 feet from the first violin. It was absolutely incredible. It made the Basilica seem rather small because the music filled the space so beautifully, but it was also fascinating to watch the conductor and the musicians and to so clearly hear the music coming from the different sections. Recordings can never be quite like this.

The Program:

Giovanni Gabrieli - Sonata Pian'e Forte (a brass piece which they played from the back of Church - absolutely incredible!)

Arcangelo Corelli - Concerto Grosso, Opus 6. No. 8 "Christmas Concerto"

Johann Sebastian Bach - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

Giuseppe Tartini - Concerto in D major for Trumpet and Orchestra (this was perhaps my favorite - the trumpet solo was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard)

Englebert Humperdinck - Prelude to Hansel and Gretel

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - "Waltz of the Flowers"

Georges Bizet - "Farandole" from Suite No. 2 from L'Arlesienne

Sergei Prokofiev - "Troika" from Suite from Lieutenant Kije, Opus 60

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - No. 3 from Three German Dances, K. 605

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Greensleeves

George Frideric Handel - "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah (sing-along)

It was particularly beautiful to listen to this music while looking at the gorgeous altarpiece. It made me consider again how art (including art, music, poetry and stories) can lead people to God or even lay the groundwork for them to accept God later. God certainly works through beauty and the imagination and this was really a good concert in more ways than one.

It also reminded me once again (especially since John and I had recently watched the visually hyperactive, but content-rich documentary about C.S. Lewis that comes with the Narnia extended DVD) of how fantasy and mythology stories can end up leading people to God. This was certainly the case in C.S. Lewis' own life, but it also reminded me of how big an impact the Narnia stories had me. They were hugely formative to me as a child and I think they (and other stories) can play a very significant role in that oft-forgotten aspect of childhood education - helping children to develop a love of the good and the beautiful and a desire to seek the truth.

Happy Saint Lucy's Day!

Saint Lucy's Day Bun
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

John and I were most pleasantly awakened at 6:45 (not 3 am) this morning by three children bearing St. Lucy's Day buns and homemade hot cocoa. Ria, Gus and Terri shared a "picnic" with us on our bed. How delightful!

Terri (who's almost 9) really outdid herself - these were gorgeous and perfectly beautiful buns and she made them with virtually no help (Gus helped shape them a little and I measured the saffron). She used the recipe from the Kirsten American Girl cookbook.

By the way, yes, this was the first time we've revisited this tradition since Ria's famous episode when she was quite small.

Messiah Sing-Along at Home

We ended up doing an impromptu Messiah sing along just with our family last night. I pulled out my music book (from high school) and we had a lot of fun (and when you sing it at home, it's okay to giggle at the high notes or trills you can't quite manage)! Recordings are plentiful and I imagine any one would do (we have one of highlights from the Messiah - from the Musical Heritage Society). The sheet music book is quite inexpensive - only about $8. Details at the Hal Leonard Publishing Company.

The Little Matchgirl

This is a very un-Disneylike Disney short animated piece. I found it at the Dawn Patrol but couldn't seem to post here. It's really quite beautiful (though sad - true to the original story) and worth watching. You can see it here.

Now I Understand...

I tried to sit down and explain this last night, but it turned into the Library Story instead - related but not exactly explaining the point. In the Library Story, I was trying to express both how exciting the Library Tree success was to me and the value our family has found in "engaging the world" even in little ways.

But there's really a lot more to the story - especially the story of my weekend. It's been a weekend filled with incredible graces and blessings, in my view, surrounding two incredibly frustrating (and rather painful) misunderstandings... as if, perhaps, "someone down there" couldn't be content with all of the good things going on and had to stir up some trouble. I had already noticed this strange roller-coaster I've been on in the last few days (John said last night that, "The world has a neurosis" heehee), but now I have more reason to share the whole story beause of the "punch line" (it's coming, be patient).

Here's the second grace-filled story that touched my life this weekend. It meant a lot to me...

I talked to one of the office-people after Mass on Sunday about the Christmas Eve over-flow Mass in the gym that my friend and I have "adopted". This office-person was concerned about our request for 10 poinsettias because it was for "just an hour" and it seemed like a waste to put too much into it. I politely pleaded that it was a packed Mass - probably 4 or 500 people and managed to secure 4 poinsettias from the YMCA sale rather than the expensive ones from the florist. Really not too bad though the "just an hour" thing grated on me a bit. The beautiful part was, I was talking to one of our church-lady friends in the hall while we munched on donuts about the project and mentioned that I was disappointed, but glad to get at least the four poinsettias instead of the two I had expected (two seemed like such an "afterthought" - especially since the entire background is black and we need a little color). She completely appreciated my enthusiasm and concern for the project and asked if she could donate some money for two more poinsettias instead of to the official Christmas flower fund. I gratefully accepted her $10 (with tears of gratitude and joy - it just touched me so much!).

The third story I just heard about yesterday. You remember that literature class with the anti-Catholic materials that I was helping some teens refute and answer? One of the moms of those students got a call from her yesterday. This teacher said that she's been teaching homeschooled students (including some Catholics) for many years. She's never had any of them stand up for their faith before and she was very impressed with these girls' conviction, their understanding and their charitable tone. She said that, being a Protestant, a number of these things about Catholics were things she just assumed to be true (some of which she didn't even know would be "offensive" to Catholics), but would be dropping some of the readings from future classes based on the girls' answers to the questions. The girls won't be going back for future classes, but it was thrilling to discover that their responses have had such a positive impact. Definitely some good seeds planted there!

Okay, so here's the punchline. This morning I finally (and somewhat belatedly) joined Alice's Cottage of Loreto e-mail group, set-up to jointly pray novenas for different Catholic homeschool families and discovered that the novena for MY family ended on Sunday, December 3rd! Thank you so much Alice and friends!

A Library Story

Our first apartment, a teeny third-floor studio in an old, old building in the downtown of our beloved small town, was in sight of the library and the park. I think we saw every movie the library owned on a discarded old VCR and a computer monitor (which we still have) in those days of zero money for entertainment (as well as enjoyed many books of course!) and Ria, who was just a little tyke, made fast friends with many of the librarians. One of our very first dinners there was to the light of a fireworks display in the park - perfectly visible from the windows of our itty-bitty kitchen (that's a picture of the kitchen all decked out for our first Christmas). Those were John's school days - he got his engineering degree 2 1/2 years after we were married (after alternating semesters of work and school).

He got his first "real" engineering job in San Diego and we lived near my family for about 2 1/2 years. These were wonderful years in many ways, but they don't pertain to this particular story. A better job offer and the prospect of buying a first house (which wasn't even remotely possible in San Diego at the time) brought us back to Wisconsin and we managed to buy an old fixer-upper just on the other side of that park and that library that we loved so well (this house hadn't been painted in 30 years!).

By this time Ria and Gus were 4 and 2 and I was expecting Terri. We dove right into kid-type activities in the library and Ria fell in love with story-time. We went there once or twice a week - particularly when we only had one car, but the double-stroller got us all safe and sound across the busy street to the library. Our favorite section in the children's area was the non-fiction. Ria made her way through all sorts of books, but we ate up these picture books and even little Gus had his favorite shelf of football books that he'd always wander over to and start browsing through. One day the head librarian (no longer there) decided to make more room in the children's area by intermixing all of the junior non-fiction with the adult non-fiction. It was still there, but incredibly inaccessible. We cried.

We still kept visiting and enjoying the library, but I made a special effort to start collecting beautiful children's science and history and religion and other good books. This was partly why love2learn started. I didn't know any homeschoolers nearby, I didn't have a car to get around and I loved to share information about great books. We got more involved in the library over time. A few years later the kids and I started helping with the set-up of the library book sale. I was astonished at how well they handled this project. (They weren't always this well-behaved!) We set up in the children's area and they helped me line up books, or at least sat down nearby to look at interesting ones or cooed from the stroller. In the midst of this, we discovered that the Friends of the Library was about to fold because the only person willing to be president didn't think she could manage to do the work on a computer necessary to pull together a newsletter. Well I could do THAT. That was easy!

I helped put together the simple little newsletter - just two or three pages printed out - for two presidents over the next three or four years (and made some great friends in the meantime). The president came to our house during our school day just two or three times a year, very nicely dealt with our chaos and the Friends Board survived. It was such a little thing, so easy for us, but one of those connections that can become very meaningful over time.

The next president didn't need a newsletter editor and we were moving (and busy with getting the house ready to sell) to the outskirts of town anyway, so our trips to the library become more infrequent. The librarians still knew all of us, though, and at the library book sale last year, the Friends board was again in need. These guys do important work (like fund the summer reading program), but they only meet for an hour or two, two or three times a year and they needed a secretary. Easy!

So I came on board as their secretary and dutifully attended the meetings. They were actually rather pleasant and I had some nice little opportunities to mention some worthwhile books, put my two cents in here or there, etc. I even had an opportunity to mention the interest in non-fiction books (especially since I've noticed that some children - especially boys? - are more drawn to non-fiction than fiction). When the need came up about the library tree, it immediately sounded like a good project for our family. They'd like to have it put up during the day and our schedule was flexible. The president wasn't available - she's a public school teacher and it's a busy time of year.

Last year we found some nice unbreakable ornaments and put together the book ornaments as well - everyone loved the book cover pictures on the ornaments! What was really exciting was to develop a repoire with the library staff and board - especially as a homeschooler. Every homeschooler is a "representative" of homeschooling - like it or not, and I tend to feel a particular obligation since I'm also a homeschool grad. This has been a good thing! There is definitely a need out there to "engage the world" and I've been surprised at how many people are open to these ideas, our enthusiasm for learning, and our desire to serve our children's needs to the best of our ability.

I guess you know the rest of the story with the library tree. Not only are we getting some great non-fiction picture books into the library, but the patrons are proving that they ARE interested in these books also, and not just the popular fiction and movies that the library tends to emphasize. To me that's a very happy ending (so far) to the story and, though the library tree is quite a bit of work (unlike the other library tasks I've been involved in), I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

Catholic Homeschool Carnival: Advent and Christmas Edition

Please stop by and enjoy the December edition of the Catholic Homeschool Carnival at O Night Divine, and be sure to thank Mary Ellen for her great work!

Marian Songs for Advent

Revised and updated in November 2009 (particularly with YouTube videos) from my original post in 2006.

It seems to me that it would be appropriate to emphasize Our Lady during Advent and hymns about her fiat and her pregnancy are most appropriate. (I did notice that "Castle of the Immaculate" has a post about a Marian theme for Advent). Here are a few of our favorite songs (still hope to find a few more resources to make these more accessible, I'll add them when/if I find them)...

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.

Beautiful listening:





The Angel Gabriel

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.



This is the version Sting performed about 20 years ago which re-popularized the song. I like the music, but not so much the video:



A more traditional rendition:




Alma Redemptoris Mater
(Marian antiphon for Advent)

Click to enlarge the music to this chant:
Here's a decent way to learn the traditional chant:



Palestrina's gorgeous polyphonic version:



More about Marian antiphons here

You may find this article from First Things interesting and relevant.

Waiting for Christmas

It seems that the most significant aspect of our Advent celebrations is to hold back the tide of music, lights, presents and parties so that we can make a distinction between preparing for and celebrating Christmas. It's so much more enjoyable and special (and less stressful - really!) that way. Here's a little tour of what Advent looks like in our house, with a little room for natural variations from year to year.

(By the way, our favorite book about Advent is Advent and Christmas in the Christian Family by Teresa Zepeda and Laurie Navar Gill - we bought this when Ria was two years old and it's had a big impact)

Pre-Advent Projects:

Long before Advent starts, we get ready for one of our favorite Christmas projects which, unfortunately, we missed out on this year. Sometime in October, our parish has sign-up sheets for their "giving tree". We sign up a pregnancy help center in Milwaukee (almost) every year for several car seats, several port-a-cribs and a variety of baby clothes, diaper bags, etc. We pick these up the first week of December (they're all wrapped and decorated) and John delivers them to the very grateful volunteers in downtown Milwaukee. This is the first year we've missed it since we started doing it about five years ago. :(

On the other side of things (also before Advent starts) we generally pick an ornament from the giving tree as one of our projects. We generally pick a "food needed" ornament for a family around the size of our own. We do a big shopping trip both at the local grocery store and Sam's Club and let the kids pick out some things (including lots of practical, but also some fun and celebratory foods).

The past two years we've put together the local public Library's "Holiday Tree" too. Though this hasn't been particularly religious in nature, it's still a small bow in the direction of Christmas, it's a worthwhile work of service and it's been an opportunity for some in our community to get to know some homeschoolers. It's also turned into an opportunity to suggest some worthwhile books to the library.

First Sunday of Advent:

I don't think I've ever purchased my Advent candles more than two or three days before the first day of Advent. Usually one of our local grocery or discount stores will have some sort of purple and pink candles that will do. This year we have "pillar" candles with pink and purple ribbons (it was either that or really compromise on what constituted purple and pink).

One of my favorite things about Advent is that, because of the Advent wreath, we almost always eat dinner around the dining room table instead of around the kitchen counter (as we usually do). We have an artificial wreath (an inexpensive wreath wrapped around with additional greenery and little bunches of holly) and two different pairs of glass candlesticks - one set is taller than the other). We also keep a candle snuffer by the wreath and the kids scrupulously take turns snuffing out the candles after dinner. Before we eat, we light the appropriate number of candles and sing a verse or two of O Come, O Come Emmanuel (usually a verse in English and a verse in Latin, if I remember right - these details tend to be "dictated" by the kids).

In the beginning of Advent we usually start reading from the Old Testament a little each night at dinner, loosely basing it on the Jesse Tree readings. Our Jesse Trees have varied from year to year. Last year we put up our Christmas tree quite early since John was heading to Taiwan right in the middle of Advent. For awhile at least, the kids each made an ornament for each of the Jesse Tree readings and put them on the Christmas tree. This year, I'm hoping to find some small wooden blocks to try something like Alice's idea, but without the tree in the background. I think it would work well for us to build the blocks up into pyramids on the mantle - perhaps more representative of "roots" than a "tree". We don't usually manage to keep the readings up as faithfully as the Advent wreath - especially since John seems to have to travel every Advent. Still, it's always worth trying again!

My father-in-law made each of his children's families a beautiful nearly-life-sized manger a number of years ago. A baby doll plays the role of Baby Jesus on Christmas morning. Throughout Advent, the children place pieces of yellow construction paper "straw" in the manger when they do a good deed of some sort (finishing their school, going to Mass, helping one of their siblings, etc. all count). That way, on Christmas, Jesus has a nice soft bed to lie in.

Often, but not always, we make advent chains out of purple and pink paper - one for each day of Advent - a chain for each child. These are hung around the room and the kids love to watch them get smaller and smaller as they get closer to Christmas. Some years I've written little "Advent tasks" on each one - a prayer to say, a good work to do, etc. Unfortunately, last year, most of them fell off the wall (haven't found a great way to secure them) and were eaten by the dog (last year was our first Christmas with a dog and she presented a number of challenges).

Christmas Cards:

I love it that the Christmas season has become a traditional time to keep in touch with friends and family. I love Christmas cards and hearing from old friends. We string our cards on colored-yarn across a large doorway and hang all the photos on our fridge. I get Christmas Cards out most years, but don't usually make it all the way through my "list".

St. Andrew's Day (November 30):

This falls before the first Sunday of Advent this year. We like the Christmas novena which begins on this day.

St. Nicholas Day (December 6):

In the Milwaukee area, the tradition has endured for generations to celebrate St. Nicholas Day by hanging stockings on St. Nicholas Eve. Neighbors, friends and people out on the street are actually preparing for this in common. It's kind of neat! Our kids generally leave a Christmas wish list in their stocking, along with a list of what they will try to do to prepare for Baby Jesus' Birthday. We like to emphasize the traditional roots of Santa Claus through "old-fashioned" Santa decorations, stories, and some neat Santa paper dolls from Dover Publications.

We also take out our Nativity set stable (this was handmade by my husband out of scrap wood from a discarded futon bed a number of years ago) with some animals and shepherds for St. Nicholas Day. Mary and Joseph appear on the other side of the house, beginning their journey. We have a Roman Soldier reading a proclamation near their starting point. The whole family joins in the process of moving Mary and Joseph appropriately around the house throughout the season. Unfortunately, they do "lose their way" on occasion.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8):

Holy Day of Obligation and usually a day to celebrate with a cake, at least. We have some lovely Marian children's books I like to take out at this time too, such as Tomie de Paola's Mary the Mother of God. We've recently welcomed a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima into our home. I'm hoping to start a new tradition of a little Marian procession (with singing of course) for Marian feast days.

Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12):

This is a particularly special day we always remember (partly because of our California roots, I suppose). We try to make it to Mass and we always read Tomie de Paola's The Lady of Guadalupe. We have a large picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the living room. My sister-in-law brought it back from Mexico a number of years ago and John built a hand-made frame for it.

St. Lucy's Feast Day (Decmeber 13):

We've only officially made St. Lucy's Day Buns once (though it was particularly memorable). Rumor has it that plans are afoot for some real baking again this year. We've certainly got enough girls (and lovers-of-baking) to manage it.

Christmas Decorations:

Somewhere in the middle of Advent, depending somewhat on the weather, we start decorating the house (a little inside and a little outside) with Christmas lights. The deck railing in back and some smaller trees in front are the main projects to tackle. Last year (the first year we had roses, which we take inside each winter) we decorated the rose bushes with lights and a few bulbs.

Our "standard" day to get a Christmas tree is on the third Sunday of Advent. We try not to do it early, but don't want to make things too much of a rush on Christmas eve, so we just hold off pretty much as long as we can. We always get a live tree (though they are significantly drier and less expensive by this point). Once John puts the tree up (oops, we need a new stand this year - he accidentally melted it in the fire pit in back last year) and I put up the lights, we let the kids at it, one category of ornaments at a time. First, plain red bulbs (and try to spread them out), then candycanes (no, you can't eat any yet!), cardboard angel ornaments (actually quite pretty) then various homemade and purchased ornaments of all sorts. 99% of our ornaments are unbreakable, and it's really nice. The kids LOVE helping and it really works out pretty well.

Books and Music:

Most of our favorite books are listed here.

We make an effort to sing Advent songs throughout Advent, but also take out our Christmas CDs somewhere in the middle of the season. Here are a few of our favorite Christmas albums:

The Bells of Dublin (The Chieftains)
Handel's Messiah
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (my kids also love the movie version with Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker)
The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole)
Kings College Choir: O Come All Ye Faithful (Musical Heritage Society)

This year, a friend of mine and I are "adopting" the Christmas Eve over-flow mass in our parish gym. We sang for this last year and realized that it was sadly neglected. There is only one Mass down there and decorations were sadly minimal (two poinsettia plants and two very sad-looking Christmas trees). I'll be bringing a team of our co-op teens over to help decorate a few days before and hope to secure a number of trees inexpensively beforehand (I think live ones - very much on the dry side by that point, but suitable for one night's use - might be the ticket). As it happens, since we've been doing the Library tree too, we were able secure some of their discarded ornaments - including dozens and dozens of bulbs. The library has switched over to all unbreakable bulbs (so nice with little ones running around), but these should be very suitable for our needs.

I expect to be adding to this over the coming weeks.

Real Santa Claus indeed personified the spirit of love

I know this seems really out of place. I'm still cleaning out the basement and other spots (still looking for that St. John Vianney relic) and came across this letter to the editor I had published in the North County Times (San Diego) on December 17, 1996. Posting it here means I can throw away the newspaper clipping!

Real Santa Claus indeed personified the spirit of love

Yes, there really is a Santa Claus. I'm responding to B.W. Tarwater's letter of Dec. 10 about the origin of Santa Claus.

B.W. wrote: "Someone apparently had the idea that the best way to explain (love) to little children would be to create an imaginary person who would personify the spirit of love." Tarwater is on the right track about the true spirit of Santa Claus, but seems unfamiliar with the origin of this tradition.

The name "Santa Claus" is actually Dutch for Saint Nicholas. Nicholas was a Bishop of Myra, Turkey, in the fourth century A.D. This much we know about him. The rest is legend, but I think you'll recognize a bit of our modern tradition in the stories.

The most famous story associated with him is about the three daughters of a poor man who, because they had no dowries in order to be married, were to be sold into prostitution. Nicholas heard of their plight and threw a bag of gold for each of them down the chimney where (according to some of the stories) they landed in the girls' stocknigs hung on the fireplace to dry.

The real Santa Claus certainly "would personify the spirit of love." We would do well to follow the example of the real Santa Claus by sharing our material blessing with those less fortunate than ourselves, particularly during the Christmas season. And what better way to teach the meaning of love to little children than by involving them in charitable activities and showing them how we can help those in need.

Alicia Van Hecke
Poway

The God in the Cave part IX (final)

...the purpose in this place is merely to sum up the combination of ideas that make up the Christian and Catholic idea, and to note that all of them are already crystallised in the first Christmas story. They are three distinct and commonly contrasted things which are nevertheless one thing; but this is the only thing which can make them one.

1. "the human instinct for a heaven that shall be as literal and almost as local as a home"

2. "a philosophy larger than other philosophies"

3. "while it is local enough for poetry and larger than any other philosophy, it is also a challenge and a fight"

It gets every kind of man to fight for it, it gets every kind of weapon to fight with, it widens its knowledge of the things that are fought for and against with every art of curiosity or sympathy; but it never forgets that it is fighting. It proclaims peace on earth and neer forgets why there was war in heaven.

This is the trinity of truth symbolised here by the three types in the old Christmas story; the shepherds and the kings and that other king who warred upon the children. It is simply not true to say that other religions and philosophies are in this respect its rivals. It is not true to say that any one of them combines these characters; it is not true to say that any one of them pretends to combine them.

No other birth of a god or childhood of a sage seems to us to be Christmas or anything like Christmas. It is either too cold or too frivolous, or too formal and classical, or too simple and savage, or too occult and complicated. Not one of us, whatever his opinions, would ever go to such a scene with the sense that he was home. He might admire it because it was poetical, or because it was philosophical, or any number of other things in separation; but not because it was itself. The truth is that there is a quite peculiar and individual character about the hold of this story on human nature; it is not in its psychological substance at all like a mere legend or the life of a great man.

It does not exactly in the ordinary sense turn our minds to greatness; to those extensions and exaggerations of humanity which are turned into gods and heroes, even by the healthiest sort of hero-worship. It does not exactly work outwards, adventurously, to the wonders to be found at the ends of the earth. It is rather something that surprises us from behind, from the hidden and personal part of our being; like that which can sometimes take us off our guard int he pathos of small objects or the blind pieties of the poor. It is rather as if a man had found an inner room in the very heart of his own house, which he had never suspected; and seen a light from within. It is as if he found something at the back of his own heart that betrayed him into good.

It is not made of what the world would call strong materials; or rather it is made of materials whose strength is in that winged levity with which they brush us and pass. It is all that is in us but a brief tenderness that is there made eternal; all that means no more than a momentary softening that is in some strange fashion become a strengthening and a repose; it is the broken speech and the lost word that are made positive and suspended unbroken; as the strange kings fade into a far country and the mountains resound no more with the feet of the shepherds; and only the night and the cavern lie in fold upon fold over something more human than humanity.