Why I Love Celebrating Christmas for Twelve Days

Reposting an old favorite (from 2007) again - amazing how many of the details still apply this year too. For me it's a critical part of how I keep joy and sanity in Christmas (Especially for me! I've had a couple of Christmasses with major let-downs in the middle of Christmas day and it's not fun!) Also, another piece that's grown in recent years is how much the kids do in the Christmas process. Because I'm often sick a week or so before Christmas, (still trying to get the allergies under control!) I've had to bring the kids in to do more tasks for me - and it turns out they really enjoy being part of the process. For example, we do a teen movie night in our room some time in the week before Christmas. We all watch a movie and all wrap presents together and have a lot more fun with a lot less stress than trying to do it all myself.

Ah, and so my two updated hints are: 1. The kids will enjoy helping as long as you don't give away all the surprises! 2. Don't be afraid to buy used presents. For us this both opens up the possibilities (because of the reasonable prices) and takes away some of the stress (for the same reason). I'm pretty selective with the used stuff though; basically, it only goes out on Christmas day if it's really like-new. If they'll love it anyway, but it's more obviously used (like a movie with a wrinkled or marked-up case), I'll save it for one of the 12 days of Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a Joyful and Blessed Christmas Season to You and Yours!



1. It makes Christmas Day itself a lot more relaxed with less expectations than if we tried to cram everything into one day. We actually scatter some extra presents out throughout the 12 days and especially on Three Kings Day - part of the fun of this is that the kids never know when there will be something under the tree. Hint #1 - keep Christmas day presents fairly reasonable in size and quantity. Hint #2 - don't give them something every day or it messes with the expectations (ahem... and the pocketbook!). :)

2. It allows us to spend our Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in the "stable" of our church gymnasium in order to attempt to provide many who attend Mass only once a year with a more beautiful and meaningful liturgy (musically speaking) and yet still celebrate Christmas the following Sunday in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in (the inside of the dome of St. Josaphat's Basilica is pictured here - click here for more photos). Ria did manage to go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass later that night with her grandparents (who very kindly brought her back in time for opening presents on Christmas morning) and Gus and I watched Midnight Mass from the National Shrine in D.C. via EWTN.

3. It gives me an excuse to play loads of games of Settlers of Catan (one of the very favorite Christmas presents this year) with the kids and encourage them to keep baking Christmas goodies, even though John had to work for a few days last week. (I hardly ever do any baking any more as my kids love it - warning: it does get messy!)

4. The same goes for listening to Christmas Music.

5. I get to take advantage of crazy after-Christmas sales to supply fun little presents for between Christmas and Three Kings' Day - such as the dollar section at Target at 75% off! :) Yesterday was a day that everyone got to open an item of clothing courtesy of Kohl's 80-90% clearance sections and $20 in Kohl's cash.

5. Many of things people try to cram in before Christmas are still open the week after Christmas too. On the third day of Christmas we went to a fun drive-through light show with John's parents and lots of Christmas music on the car CD player, followed by an indoor look at an amazing nativity set and a fun and enormous set of electric trains.

Also, after visiting the Basilica yesterday, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and particularly enjoyed the "European Village" (here's a sample photo, though I can't remember which house this is from - Ria thinks it's the Austrian one) in which each exhibit was still decorated for Christmas and Christmas music was playing throughout. What fun - and this was completely unexpected for us - I never knew that they decorated these houses for Christmas!

6. We still have more time in which to send out our long-neglected Christmas Cards!

Speaking of Advent...

DSC_3932, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I just love this picture of Frank posing with his Advent chain. That and a cute little punch-out Nativity set/book by H.A. Rey that I picked up this year have been big hits this Advent.

One Lonely Apple

One Lonely Apple, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

A squirrel had just climbed down this branch to steal an apple right next to this one and shaking all of the snow off of it. It used to frustrate me that there are always some apples and pears that we can't quite reach. With this snowstorm noticed that they're eaten by squirrels and birds, so they don't go to waste.

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.

Pomerian Dancers at the Holiday Folk Fair

Pomerian Dancers, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

More Ballet Folklorico

DSC_3608, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I love this shot!

Ballet Folklorico at the Holiday Folk Fair

DSC_3631, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Ballet Folklorico were special guests at this year's fair and performed a number of dances from different parts of Mexico (each with its own unique costumes). They were wonderful!

I'm Not Sure Where They're From...

More Holiday Folk Fair 2009 in Milwaukee:

DSC_3666, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Serbia? Slovakia?

But they really started hamming it up when they saw me with the camera. :)

Scottish Dancers

DSC_3705, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Holiday Folk Fair

DSC_3730, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

We've been awfully busy around here - more the case of way too much to write about than too little. We've got a new archbishop, Ria's been working her way through admissions tests and college visits, we survived two big rounds of viruses, but no swine flu. Tonight we're discussing the Iliad with the teen discussion group and two of my kids are in a Shakespeare play.

Since I don't have time to write real posts right now, I thought I'd share a few more pictures. These are Polish dancers from Milwaukee's 66th annual International Holiday Folk Fair which we visited on Sunday.

From Today's Morning Prayer...

Guard against foul talk; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners, otherwise you will only be grieving the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal for you to be set free when the day comes. Never have grudges against others, or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness. Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.

(Ephesians 4:29-32)

SAT Prep ;)

DSC_3415.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

And One More...

DSC_3412.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I'm still thinking of changing the far right picture (though it's a gorgeous baby picture of Gus) to one that's a little more congruous with the other two.

Cute Old Pictures of the Family

DSC_3410.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I've had this frame sitting around for ages (it's actually been sitting out on my dresser for months with just the fake pictures included with it when it's new) and finally filled it up.

Anyway, these are a few favorites.

Happy All Saints Day!

DSC_3387.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I'm not always long on ideas for celebrating All Saints Day - especially since our homeschool group's All Saints' Day party is long over (and especially when All Saints Day falls on a busy Sunday after having company over for Halloween), but we did come up with this idea this morning - and I liked how it worked out. We have a flash card chart up on one wall which happened to be standing empty this morning and so we collected all the holy cards we could find to fill it. I rather like how it turned out!

Leaf Collecting

Leaf Collecting, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

More Fall Color

DSC_3207.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

My husband took this shot at the zoo today. I love this stage in late fall where the leaves look like they're made of light.

Inconsistent Perception

Inconsistent Perception, originally uploaded by BertusMark.

My nephew took this photo. Isn't it gorgeous?

7 Quick Takes

1.

I signed up for Support a Catholic Speaker Month and got to interview Mike Aquilina via telephone earlier this week. He was very gracious and even shared a few tips with me for public speaking. I should have a formal post for the project up at Love2learn Blog early next week.

2.

It's cats' cradle week here. I'm not exactly sure why this came about (except that someone stumbled upon the Klutz book and it's been quiet week) but all the kids have been up to it like crazy.

3.


Click the picture and look at #3. I can vouch from personal experience for the veracity of Jen's comments.

4.

We just happened to be finishing up a read-aloud of Stories from Herodotus by Glanville Downey (very nice, though out-of-print, children's version of Herodotus' Histories) when Bethlehem Books' newest title (by Jeanne Bendick no less) about the life of Herodotus arrived. (You can read my review of Herodotus and the Road to History here.) Couldn't be better timing and it was neat how tidbits from his biography helped explain parts of his emphasis in story-telling. It turned out that one of the characters he talked about (a female commander on the Persian side) was a relative of his. Fun stuff.


5.

It's transcript, admissions essays and test-taking time around here for Ria. I managed to crank out the first draft of her narrative transcript (thank goodness for all those booklists I had been saving online each year!), while she's been working on essays and such. Last night I discovered I had forgotten an entire section of history and literature (which I grouped together for practical purposes). Yes, she did read a bunch of books, like Beowulf and the Song of Roland, from the Middle Ages. We are loving ISI's College Guide (which we were lucky enough to acquire from a local thrift store) and the fact that they generously give you three free college descriptions on their website (a few weren't included in our 2008-2009 guide). The details in this guide are both fabulous and motivating, especially as she gets a chance to compare her sample test scores with the averages (or mid-ranges) at various colleges to get a sense of where things stand.

Like many students, Ria has areas of great strength and lesser strength. Homeschooling high school is no cakewalk and I frequently come into contact (and at times frustration) with my own shortcomings. There are certainly things that would have gone more smoothly (or at least more consistently) in a school setting, but overall we've seen the rewards far exceed those difficulties. It will be very interesting to see how things turn out in this next challenge, but it's certainly a very exciting process.

6.

It was fun doing the "geek the library" post yesterday, partly because it reminded me of why our family loves being fairly seriously involved with our local public library. It's definitely a helpful thing in this world to be able to encounter someone and recognize the good that we are able to work for together in spite of potential differences. Our involvement in our local library has been an entirely positive experience in this regard. I am thrilled to again be entrusted with the library's Holiday Tree which gives us the opportunity to get a lot of very good books and movies into the library.

7.


This is the map I hung on our wall this week. This map and I go way back. I fell in love with it when it first arrived in an issue of National Geographic Magazine (my dad was a faithful subscriber for as long as I could remember) when I was about 14 years old. I covered it with contact paper and later inherited the rather messy affair when my dad sent us a bunch of his cool old maps. I used a hair dryer to make the contact paper lay somewhat flat and it took about 10 push pins (since the creases of the map have a lot of tears in them in spite of the contact paper), but I think it looks rather nice from a distance with its ancient-mapish appearance, don't you?

What Do You Geek?

I saw this over at Mental Multivitamin and couldn't resist it, especially since, really, one of the things we geek is libraries!

geek (VERB)

1. To love, to enjoy, to celebrate, to have an intense passion for.
2. To express interest in.
3. To possess a large amount of knowledge in.
4. To promote.

I geek...

My local library

Books - especially juvenile non-fiction

Homeschooling also this

Latin

History

Architecture

Sacred Music

There's really a lot of other things too - like G.K. Chesterton, the Catholic Faith in general... you get the idea.

Okay, I admit it, I'm a geek! :)

I was going to say that the local library was helpful with everything except Latin and Sacred Music, but I realized that's not quite true. They have a few (very few) Latin items and a few recordings of Sacred Music - particularly of the Christmas variety. It's not a lot, but it's something!