Christmas Day 2013

After the late  early morning of Christmas Eve  preparations it was a later start to the excitement of this most looked forward to event.

The manger scenes are set and ready for the obvious fact that today is the birthday of Jesus and so we celebrate this as much if not more than our own birthdays, which if you know us are usually celebrated with great ceremony.

I admit that with the excitement of getting to those long awaited presents that we forgot to sing "Happy birthday to Jesus" like we planned, but we did have the doors closed and children lined up to enter the room as we played the little music box to walk in at a sedate pace. No.... not really they all rushed in and over to where they had placed their Christmas bags, as they heard the sounds of Silent Night from the music box.

Everyone sits down and we start from the youngest to the oldest each year.
The opening of the bags is a VERY long drawn out affair as we all take turns opening the bags as everyone watches to see what the gifts are.

I think this allows each person to enjoy their own gifts as well as the others to appreciate the gifts given and be part of the excitement of the gift giving.

It also allows the virtue of patience to be exercised as well as the anticipation to build for the older ones as they see that, yes the Christmas lists they have written out and were hoping that they were getting things from have at least been partially filled.

This can take quite a bit of time and so after we have finished with the bags we tend to have a bit of a break and start to prepare the late lunch, practically dinner of our traditional roast, chicken, pork and turkey breast with baked veges with gravy and apple sauce.

All morning we were snacking on left overs from the feast on Christmas Eve!

During this time the 'head Elf' was putting together the 6 bikes that were given as gifts.
Usually this is done before Christmas Day but we had been not very well and so the time to do this was not able to be used in this way.

Really it was fine as Stephen started with the little ones and worked his way up.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of Braedon and Anna-Lisa so we could open the gifts under the tree.
These are gifts from the children to each other and us and are usually hand made with some of the older children buying gifts.

Again this took a long time and I was checking the cooking of the dinner as we were going through in  a similar way as the bags but this time we just randomly pull out a present and hand it out, while still watching and sharing the joy of both the giver and receiver of the gift.

AS it turned out we pretty much finished as the meal was ready and sat down and enjoyed this tradition.

As usual everyone was too full to eat the sweets of boiled pudding and home made Christmas Ice Cream and so we have that later in the evening as everyone is starting to be a little peckish.

After this it is pretty much bed time for all including a tired Mum and Dad.

As we retire for the night our wise men begin their journey from this point around the room to reach the infant Jesus on Epiphany and our celebrations of the 12 Days of Christmas will start as well.

Again I am thankful for the memories we build in the times of celebration within our family circle.
Thankful especially on this day for the birth of our Saviour and thus the cornerstone of my Faith and life.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Epiphany

Today is the celebration of Epiphany  but we will be celebrating it tomorrow as a family due to the fact I was not organised today so
I pray you all enjoy this most special feast day when we celebrate the fact that Jesus cam not for one lot of special people but for ALL PEOPLE.

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route." Matthew 2:1-12

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Feast of the Holy Family - 5th Day of Christmas

Today the 5th Day of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family in our Liturgical Year.

It is one day each Christmas Season when I think of our family and how we are doing as a model for each other in the way we encourage each other in the special bond of -Family.

Our family circle is different each year with children getting older, some moving away form home following their own paths, others reaching out in the community while still living at home.
Some years in the past we have been blessed to have a new baby welcomed into this family circle and today I could not help but think of our own little ones not with us.

I have been a little slow in thinking up ideas for celebrating feasts over the last few weeks and months, especially after our lead up to Christmas with a most debilitating illness that spread through out our entire family.

However my main focus was to spend some time together in a very relaxed manner.
So after a HUGE folding up party this morning, and some resting and board game playing for others, we had planned on going to the playground after an evening Mass with some bought chips from the local Fish n Chip shop.

Of course this was too simple wasn't it?
Yes- the fish shop is closed until the 6th and NO the only other one we knew of on the other side of town has closed down.
So off to plan B and C.
We bought some cooked chooks, bread (hope we feel OK tomorrow) and coleslaw to take to the playground together.

As it turned out it was a lovely pleasant evening.
Nothing exciting- we ate, played on the equipment went for a walk around the various gardens and had an ice cream on the way home (some of us anyway)

However it did remind me again that it is the beauty of the everyday that creates memories.
It is how we learn to treat others first in a family setting .
It is the opportunity we have to grow from learning to be patient, loving, kind and caring among the people God has out into our family.

And while our family has a long way to go to be like The Holy Family, we are blessed to have that chance to strive each and every moment of the day, and that through the trials and joys of those everyday events we build up a strong base from which our children can then go forth and live their Faith in the world outside that  blessed family Circle.

May God bless you and strengthen in Faith your families on this most special feast  day!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Merry Christmas to you All

Merry Christmas to you all from our family to yours, and may you be blessed throughout this Christmas Season and beyond.

May the gift of our Saviour be yours and may you share this gift with those you reach in everyday life.

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

(This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

And everyone went to their own town to register.

 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen,  which were just as they had been told. Luke" 2:1-20

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Epiphany 2013 - Part 2

The second part of our Epiphany celebrations is usually the King cake and then the presenting of the gifts of the Three Kings to the Infant King.

First we make a King Cake and then I place three beans in instead of the traditional one. As we have found we like to have the choose of kings for our presentation to be from the  finding of the beans in the cake.

As we keep the  preparations to a minimum, we use birthday crowns I have made in the past and have the capes or robes of the Three Kings from our play cloths for the dressing up part of this celebrations.
Dressing up is a very important part of our celebrations and is always a fun thing to do!

As I could not find the containers for the gifts from last year, I asked my trusty helper Rogan if he would take care of that for me. So in our wooden box we have the chocolate coins for the gold. the small bag with stars has cinnamon sticks for frankincense and the cardboard  cornucopia with cloves for the myrrh.

We place them together on a table for the three Kings who found the beans to choose their gifts and their costumes.

Arwen

Corbyn

Myffwyn
The infant King awaiting His gifts

And with His gifts afterwards

Trahaearn had to dress up when the others were finished doing the actual 'play.' He was so sweet. He kept presenting the gifts over and over again.

These photos are blurry for some reason. Perhaps the movement of the participants.
But the children insisted that they needed donkeys or camels so Eden became a donkey for Arwen

Myffy was too giggly wiht her transportation, ie her buddy Braedon.

And Rogan volunteered to be the camel for Corbyn

These were some of the pictures that were coloured in for the day while listening to The Hobbit

And our little ones before we pack up our decorations which we do on Epiphany had to create a small home for baby Jesus.
As I had not turned the actual video on for the re-enactment of our presentation of the gifts. I did ask the children to do it again, which they were happy to do but alas they were a little silly by that stage.

Blessings to you and your homes,
  

Epiphany 2013- Part 1

 Epiphany is the last celebration for us in the Christmas Season and it is one that is still looked forward to in our family as we are still in holiday mode and love sharing these times together.

So even though we well I forgot to prepare for this on Saturday night as it was one of those busy and quite hot weekends for us, and we were concentrating on the activities for Sunday too. I also forgot the date completely and it wasn't till very late in the evening that I remembered and did not have the necessary items to fill the shoes.

However that is never a reason not to celebrate and I have no fear of being a day late or two either as it is the celebration of the Liturgical event we are trying to honour and to teach our children.

 Thus our preparations for the day were made anyway and I was very thankful that Eden was able to mostly help me with this as well this year.
First off is the traditional print of a picture depicting the Wise Men. We laminate them after writing on them to keep in our special boxes of Liturgical Party Favours.

 These are Arwen's little shoes (scuffed and all) I think that is her third pair of red shoes, I do so adore red shoes on little girls, with her gifts  in side and the picture waiting to be discovered in the morning

The  children just before they opened the Wise Men's gifts, minus only 4 children!

 The Infant Jesus that was represented at Christmas is now transformed into a King withe Crown, scepter (of course the scepter that I kept picking up all over Christmas could not be found when we needed it and so a gold pencil had to suffice) and luxurious fabric now on His throne that was once a cradle

Both Arwen and Trahaearn were most eager to get into the shoes and gifts as we opened them. Trahaearn really had missed the excitement as he finally fell to sleep as we were talking about the symbolism and story of the Wise Men coming and so he missed the actual opening together.

The coins and the jelly beans or rather gummi bears this year were gone very quickly and we still have more celebrating to share with the Three Kings Cake and reenactment of giving the gifts still to come.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Feast of Epiphany

Epiphany today has been an interesting day for us and so I have nothing to share but this prayer with you.

Dear Jesus,
as You led the Three Kings to You by the light of a star,
please draw us ever closer to You by the light of Faith.
Help us to desire You as ardently as they did.
Give us the grace to overcome all the obstacles that keep us far from You.
May we, like them, have something to give You when we appear before You.
Mary, Our Mother, help us to know Your Son.
 Amen.

We will be celebrating this most wonderful feast day belatedly and look forward to sharing then

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

The 12 Days of Christmas and how we Celebrate

One of the traditions we have had for a long time is the giving of family gifts over the 12 Days of Christmas.
How did this come about?
Well as we learned more about our faith as our children were littler we were interested to learn that Christmas did not finish on Christmas Day but was actually a season in the life of the Church and so extended at least until Epiphany  and sometimes longer depending on which calender you follow.

So we decided to continue on with the celebrations and give a family gift that we would take turns opening each day up till Epiphany.

Some years I wrap all the presents and place them under the tree then the person for the day can choose which one to open each day.
Then some years I hide them away and bring out the present each day, place it under the tree and the chosen  person gets it and gathers every one around so we can see the opening together.

This year was the later as we have a little one who cannot resist opening the presents from the tree when he sees them.
I admit it is hard to find gifts that don't end up costing too much and it does take a bit of looking. As we don't buy gifts during the year except birthdays of course, we tend to try to find things that will suit us all and that we would not normally buy but that we really like.
To that end The Hobbit has been a huge thing over the Christmas period as we took the older children to see it as it was released. The tickets were part of our Christmas allowance and were a high priority for us, as we are big Hobbit fans in our family.
Also we have been gradually changing our old videos to DVDs and there a  lot of animated classics we need to get so they were on the list too.

During the years we have had many types of gifts including:
board games, sports equipment, DVDs, books, food items, stockings, chocolate nougat puddings ( huge favourite with everyone and certainly an indulgence) and sometimes outings and necessary items we may need .

This year contains a heavy helping of DVDs and books but here is what we have have-
1st Day of Christmas: Foam swords for playing together
2nd Day of Christmas: The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey Chronicles
3rd Day of Christmas: The Brady Bunch 1st Season Series
4th Day of Christmas: Christmas Romance and I'll Be Home for Christmas Christmas   DVDs (and I got Christmas Shoes for St Nicholas Day)
5th Day of Christmas: Complete Skippy Collection
6th Day of Christmas:  Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 and Tinkerbell and The Lost Treasure DVDs
7th Day of Christmas:  Queen Victoria's Christmas Book and Fox and the Hound DVD
8th Day of Christmas: Pocahontas and Lady and the Tramp DVDs
9th Day of Christmas:  Special Milkshakes with Ice cream and topping ( a rare indulgence for us) and we used all 4 liters of ice cream too :)
10th Day of Christmas: The Hobbit Movie Story Book
11th Day of Christmas: The Hobbit Visual Guide
12th Day of Christmas: School Supplies -AS it is a large cost and I saw some specials I cheated a little and bought some.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Feast of the Holy Innocents - 4th Day of Christmas

Over the last few years I have tried to share about the 12 Days of Christmas in both the whole as well as the  parts of this section of the Liturgical year.

Today being the Feast of the Holy Innocents is especially dear to my heart as we live in the culture of death and we see the murder of innocents each day and yet still our culture does not value these precious innocent lives.

Even with the passing of time, it seems we do not learn anything from the past. Still it seems that people will choose to not see fact that if we as a culture refuse to protect those who are the weakest and most in need of protection then surely we can see the fact that it will not be long before the question arises about who actually is worthy of life, and that no life is sacred at all unless it can be justified to those in power.

Sadly this is a wide held belief in our society and it is essential that we revere the lives of our holy innocents and thus preserve our society and thus the sanctity of ALL LIFE.

"During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes." Catholic Culture

One of the traditions that is promoted this day is the blessing of children.

As our children go to bed or as they leave to walk out our door or as we go out the door we  draw a cross upon each child's forehead and say "God Bless you"

Here is information about the blessing of children~

If you do not as yet have the custom, this is the day to begin the beautiful practice of blessing your children. There is a traditional Blessing of Children given by the priest in church on this day. If it is not a custom in your parish, perhaps it could become one if enough parents inquired about it. This is the way it reads in the new English Ritual [Editor's Note:: This is actually from the older version of the Roman Ritual. See the newer blessings.]

Let us pray. O Lord, Jesus Christ, Who didst embrace and lay thy hands upon the little children when they came to thee, and didst say to them: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs, and their angels always see the face of my Father," — look with a Father's eye upon the innocence of these children and their parents' devotion, and bless them this day through our ministry. By thy grace and goodness let them make progress in desiring thee, loving thee, fearing thee, obeying thy commandments — thus coming to their destined home, through thee, Saviour of the world, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.

For parents there is the beautiful blessing of children for use at home: "Bless you, my child, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is a custom to add some loving petition such as "and may you have a sweet sleep"; or if a child is sick, "and may you be better by morning"; or if a child is anticipating some special occasion, something like "and may you have a lovely feast day tomorrow."

The father or mother places one hand on each side of the child's head as the words are pronounced and accompanies the invocation of the Trinity by making the Sign of the Cross with the right thumb on the child's forehead. It makes a beautiful end to a day, and it is an added source of confidence when starting on a journey, off to school, before exams, to the doctor, to the dentist — anywhere. Let us who are parents ask our parents to give us their blessing. ~ Catholic Culture

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

A Merry and Blessed Christmas to you........

Well, our little ones are all in bed after Midnight Mass, a family photo (almost complete) and our Midnight feast.
The Christmas bags were placed out and have now been filled with gifts that remind us of the gift of Jesus Christ whose birthday we celebrate today.

And I stop in here to share these joyous blessings with you before heading off to bed for a few hours sleep, as it is 4:45 am on Christmas morning.

I pray you and your families may enjoy all the day has to offer in love, joy and many memories to look back on over the years.

May Christ fill your hearts and lives with his love that you may share this with others as well.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas to you all!!!!

Christmas blessings to you and your homes this year,