Merry Christmas!

Last Sunday of Advent

This week of Advent gets shortened as Christmas Eve is the day after. 

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,  where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk. 1:39-45)

The spirit of Advent largely consists in living close to Our Lady during this time when she is carrying Jesus in her womb. We can think of the whole of our life as a somewhat longer Advent, a time of waiting for that definitive moment when we will at last find ourselves with God forever. The Christian knows that he has to live this Advent beside Our Lady every day of his life if he wants to be certain of attaining the only thing in the whole of his existence that is really important–finding Christ in his life, and afterwards being with him in eternity. There is no better way of preparing for Christmas, which is now so close, than by keeping Mary company, getting to know her and deepening our love and trust in her.  Mary imparts a great joy to our souls, because when we turn to her she leads us to Christ.

~from In Conversation with God, Daily Meditations, Volume One: Advent and Christmastide

News of late

Everyone home, wrapping presents, sleeping in, eating Christmas cookies, enjoying the season.

Marian and her friend Mily and I went to see The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical last night.  Funny, predictable, but a nice break in the busy season.

Last minute Christmas shopping today then choir rehearsal tonight for the girls.  (We are singing at Midnight Mass.) 

Tomorrow will be cleaning and cooking in preparation for Christmas day.

Christmas traditions

Everyone has their traditions, some weird, some wonderful.  Hopefully, our family falls somewhere in between.

Tonight we will have a family dinner and then decorate the tree, while listening to A Christmas Carol narrated by Patrick Stewart.  This tradition started when we lived in Chicago and watched Star Trek:TNG regularly.  Someone gave us the cassettes of this (I know this dates us) and then when online shopping became the rage and cassette tapes stopped working, we finally found it on CD.  So, now we listen to that each year while decorating. 

Another tradition is to make a cookie for each member of the family during the month of December.  Anna chose sugar cookies, Klara (Gabriel's girlfriend) chose snickerdoodles, Gabriel wants cornulete, Marian wants gingersnaps, and Bogdan has yet to determine what he wants.

Blessings of the season and celebrate those Christmas traditions!

Third Sunday of Advent

Rejoice in the Lord, always: 

again, I say, rejoice. 

Indeed, the Lord is near.

O God, who see how your people 

faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,

enable us, we pray,

to attain the joys of so great a salvation,

and to celebrate them always

with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

SNOW!

We're excited to have snow this morning, but realize it won't stay too long.  But, it sure is nice to have at this time of year.

The house is decorated, but we still have to get the Christmas tree yet.  Will try to this week. Gabriel comes home on Monday from school.

Marian has been busy with auditions and shows lately, having just done a great audition yesterday for the Bijou awards.  She has 2 more next week and then she has to do a video audition for an arts summer program.

Anna has a kitten!  She has named the kitten Penelope, and it's super cute.  It was a stray a friend of ours took in, but couldn't keep.

Demolition has begun for our bathroom remodel.  We are updating our hallway bathroom, making it bigger with some more modern features, we promise pictures once it's all done.

Second Sunday of Advent

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.  ~Luke 3:4,6

First Sunday of Advent

(from ewtn.com)
Prayer For The Advent Wreath
Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for He is Emmanuel,
the Hope of all people.
He is the Wisdom that teaches and guides us.
He is the Savior of us all.
O Lord,
let your blessing come upon us as we light the first (purple) candle of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ's promise of salvation.
May He come quickly and not delay.
We ask this in His holy name. Amen.

Waiting
We light a advent candle today, a small dim light against a world that often seems forbidding and dark. But we light it because we are a people of hope, a people whose faith is marked by an expectation that we should always be ready for the coming of the Master. The joy and anticipation of this season is captured beautifully in the antiphons of hope from the monastic liturgies:

See! The ruler of the earth shall come, the Lord who will take from us the heavy burden of our exile
The Lord will come soon, will not delay.
The Lord will make the darkest places bright.
We must capture that urgency today in the small flame of our candle. We light the candle because we know that the coming of Christ is tied to our building of the kingdom. Lighting the flame, feeding the hungry, comforting the sick, reconciling the divided, praying for the repentant, greeting the lonely and forgotten – doing all these works hastens His coming.

Advent by Candlelight

Some of the lovely tables decorated for our Advent by Candlelight celebration.  We had lovely food and drink served by each table hostess, prayers and scripture, and beautiful music by the Maryville Tartan Soul Choir.  Additionally, we donated 3 car loads of baby items to the local Crisis Pregnancy Centers.  A lovely time had by all

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been months since my last post.  Of course, I could blame this on getting a new computer (which I did) and forgetting my password to this account (also true) or just being very busy (always true).  Anyway, lots going on this fall and glad to have some down time.

I worked briefly as the Dir. of Rel. Ed. at church, filling in the last minute for someone.  That lasted 2 months and glad it's mostly over.  Been busy with medical billing as our practice hired a new person.  Now that's 3 that I'm working for.  Costume design and sewing for a few productions has also kept me busy. Next big project Annie (the musical) and lots of 1930's costumes to make and buy.

Marian has been busy with 2 shows, Our Town and Peter Pan.  The first was a high school production and she played Rebecca Gibbs, the sometimes bratty little sister (NO typecasting there).  Peter Pan has its opening night tomorrow night and she plays a native (not an Indian) and does her ususal singing and dancing.  

Anna has gotten into the groove of work and loving it.  She walks to work each day, as her apartment is literally next door.  Saving money on gas is a good thing.  She has enjoyed working backstage for a number of productions and will be involved with Peter Pan (she helps make them fly!)

Gabriel is home for Thanksgiving and I'm sure we'll catch up with all that is going on in his life.  He has decided to take a different route with his undergrad degree. He had initially thought of doing a dual BS/MS degree, but has decided against it.  He finds that he has no time to just enjoy his college experience, and we applaud him for making this decision to balance his work/studies/social life.  It's a good life lesson.

Bogdan turned 50 in October, and we had a big surprise party for him.  He's very easy to surprise, and he enjoyed the time with friends.  He recieved a total of 8 bottles of wine and a 6 pack of beer for his big day.

We are just having a small Thanksgiving here, just us, despite inviting a number of folks, who all declined due to other invites.  Thinking of friends and family both near and far during this day and thankful for all the abundance God has given us.

September already here!

Schoool has been underway for almost 6 weeks now, with Marian already passing the midterm!  She is loving her sophomore year.  She has a lot more homework, but still getting it all done.  She has been cast as Rebecca Gibbs in Our Town, she plays the younger sister of the lead in the show.  She is also helping as the sound technician for another local production of Five Chinese Brothers. 

Gabriel has started classes and so far reports all is great. He has an apartment this year, and has it all set up nicely.  Unfortunately, he had his bike stolen, right from his backyard! 

Anna has been moved to the infant room at her work, so now watches 6 weeks-1 year old babies each day.  She has moved into her apartment and walks to work, she lives literally right next door.

Due to changes at our parish, I've been asked to be the interim Dir. of Religious Ed.  It's time consuming, but I've done this before, so I've comfortable with the work.  But, that does mean it's busier than normal.  Girl Scouts, Hospice, bible study, high school lunch, music ministry, medical billing, costume design, and now religious ed.  I've warned Marian and Bogdan to not expect a clean house in the interim period.

If you see any movie this year, see Won't You Be My Neighbor?  It's a documentary about Mr. Rogers.  It's an amazing movie, just so great.  I have a strong connection to Mr. Rogers, other than of course watching it when I was a kid, but he debuted Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on the very day of my birth :)

Karen's Summer Reading

A selection of books I've read this summer

Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben
The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian
The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn
Find Me by JS Monroe
Only Child by Rhiannon Navin
The recipe box by Viola Shipman
One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel
The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go by Amy Reichert
Heart on the Line by Karen Witemeyer
Just between us by Rebecca Drake
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
I was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
A state of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
The talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard
The trouble with goats and sheep by Joanna Cannon
Two steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist
The summer that made Us by Robyn Carr
The Noel Diary by Richard Paul Evans

A whirlwind of a summer

Well, today being the first day of school, it is somewhat an end to summer.  But, really Labor Day does officially end summer.

Marian begins her first day of sophomore year at Oak Ridge High School.  She had a busy summer with some highlights including: being in the Ensemble of Oklahoma (singing, dancing and loving it), doing her summer reading (finishing it just yesterday!), re-designing her new room (she's taken over Anna's old bedroom), visiting NYC and seeing her first Broadway show (Anastasia, which is AMAZING), doing some fun things on her summer bucket list (learning to knit, going in the World's Fair Park fountain fully clothed, trying 10 new candies, among other things), and having her wisdom teeth out (not too fun, but it's done!). 

Gabriel starts his junior year at Rice in a few weeks.  This is his last week in NYC. He has had a good time there and loved his internship.  He is renting a house with 7 other guys (4 on each floor) and will be moving into there in the next couple weeks.

Anna got a job, about 6-7 weeks of looking, but her perseverance paid off.  She is an assistant teacher at a daycare and takes care of the 18-24 month old kids.  She has saved enough money and will be moving into her own studio apartment at the end of August.  She is excited to be on her own.  It will be a challenge to organize all her stuff into a small space, but I'm sure she'll work it out.  She is very much looking forward to saving money on gas, as the apartment is walking distance to work.  She worked backstage for Oklahoma and has been asked to work the next show, Deathtrap. 

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers out there.  Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you for the gift of life you gave to your children.

Pictures from Anna's Graduation from Roane State!  She is now officially looking for a job, any leads are appreciated!!

March

Well, the saying that March came in like a lion and out like a lamb, not quite so with the weather we're having.  While March in TN is usually mild, it has been very cold and rainy.  Today is no exception, even tho' it's already April.

March was a whirlwind of activity with the musical (The Music Man), 6 shows, over 4500 people in attendance, largest cast, most costumes, great sets, the list goes on!  I've included some pictures below. 

Then we had vacation, in which we did all the show laundry, ironed, and returned all the costumes.  My sewing room is finally clean and organized and I can now do a cleaning of my machines. 

Marian spent her vacation mostly watching TV shows on Netflix or Hulu.  And catching up on sleep. 

We had a lovely week celebrating Jesus' Passion and journey toward Easter.  Holy Thursday, complete with foot washing, Good Friday, with a lovely service a church, and Holy Saturday, culminating the 40 day trek we began on Ash Wednesday.  We welcomed 5 new members of the church, including 3 teenagers.  We are back today for our normal Mass, then a feast of pulled pork (requested by the girls) and scalloped potatoes.

January and February

Too busy here to post anything, but here's an attempt.

Marian performed in the Acting Awards for Bijou, didn't win, but had a fun time.  She is now 15, and has her learner's permit.  She is asking to drive at every opportunity.  But, she says she's scared of driving on the highway.  She is very busy now with rehearsals for The Music Man.  She loves being involved onstage, after so many years watching from the wings.

Anna is busy working on school and focusing on graduating.  We are all hopeful that it'll be in May.  Starting soon, she'll be looking for employment.  Marian is hoping Anna gets a job right away and moves out, as she wants her room.  Anna had the best birthday present, as we gifted her with tickets to Dancing with the Stars Live!  She was in the 3rd row and had a blast. 

Other things we've done:

• Girl Scout International Festival (we did the country Germany and served chocolate cookies and Gummy Bears)
• Making TONS of costumes for The Music Man!!  Still working on alterations.
• Girl Scout Cookie Season (everywhere you look in my office, there are cases of cookies!)
• Finally getting our furnace working, after it seemed like months without heat (it was probably only weeks, but it felt much longer)
• Watching the Olympics and rooting for Team USA
• Getting sick, but not the flu, and suffering for a week with horrible cough

Happy birthday to Marian, Anna and Karen

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all!  We welcomed the New Year in with very cold temperatures.  It's been close to zero for weeks it seems.  Today it's 11 degrees with potential freezing rain coming tonight.  School has begun for Marian, with some rooms still very cold (I've heard from the students)

Gabriel returns to Rice today and classes begin this week.  Anna has another week of vacation and classes will start next week. 

Costumes are underway for the spring musical (The Music Man), having made 35 costumes over the vacation. Fittings and other costume making still to do.  Largest cast (55!) yet.