Happy Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

Making Pork Pies and Cake Balls in preparation for tomorrow.  Girls are practicing music for Midnight Mass.  Gabriel is working until later.  We will all gather for dinner and a movie and then off to Midnight Mass. 

We are now proud owners of a new (used) car from CarMax.  It's a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid.  Virtually the same car as mine before the crash, just one year newer.  It got a clean bill of health from our local mechanic, the only thing not working is the CD player, and CarMax is fixing that next week.  

What we've been doing

Marian has made the "final cut" for the Bijou Awards and is one of 5 Middle School finalists.  Oddly, they are all girls this year.  She is pondering what she will sing and looking forward to the competition once again.  It is Saturday, January 16th.

Gabriel found out that he did not make it into Stanford, and was disappointed but he's looking forward to other colleges.  He is continuing to work and finish applications.  He is bringing the family out to dinner tonight and then we are all going to the new Star Wars movie.  (Yes, we already have tickets!)

Christmas cookies made so far:
Snickerdoodles (Bogdan's yearly request)
Double Peanut butter with Chocolate Drizzle (Marian's brainchild)
Cornulete, Romanian jam-filled buttermilk cookies (Gabriel's favorite)
Sugar cookies (Anna's annual choice)

Still awaiting word from CarMax about the car I'm looking at, they are supposed to be getting it transported here.  Still juggling 2 cars between 4 drivers.

Our elderly friend had her "reconnect" surgery, after living with an ileostomy for 3 months.  She is still in a lot of pain, but we are hopeful this will fix her issues.

Advent ponderings

Sharing from daily Mass today...we are waiting 2 Advents in the future.  The Advent of Christ, as we celebrate his Holy Birth and the Advent of the Second Coming.  Many of the readings during Advent focus on the end times, and it is because we are awaiting that Advent as well.

Too much happening

It seems December has begun and I've yet to post anything on the blog.

Maybe it's because....

--Gabriel was in a major accident and totaled my car
--We've been dealing with insurance company and also looking at a new car for me
--the musical was cast and costumes and patterns have been consuming my kitchen, living room and sewing area for 2 weeks now
--Advent has begun and it dawned on me that Christmas would be here before I knew it...time to start on making cookies, sending cards, decorating, and mailing packages.
--trying to help Anna sort out issues at college, classes, schedules, grades, the list goes on

--figuring out what to do at Girl Scouts for Christmas, deciding to make a simple decoration (see above, we used paint for the faces)

Looking forward to a simple and restful Christmas.