Maybe it's the new baby, but Advent has FLOWN by in our house. Christmas is almost here! I just had to re-type this because I'm pretty sure I have to say my favorite part of our Christmas celebration is the Mass. But a VERY close second is our At Home Family Nativity...
Keeping Advent: Our Family’s Traditions
Here's a little glimpse at what the first few days of Advent have looked like at our house . . . Journey to Bethlehem (the board game) It's pretty much the best advent-themed board game ever. But it's a very limited edition, since Jack made it when he was in the first...
Three Reasons I Love Advent
A few weeks ago, I wrote about our family's advent philosophy, but now that advent is actually upon us, I wanted to share a little more about our three favorite advent family traditions. 1. Little People Nativity We have many nativity sets. We've got a big outdoor...
Just the Book I Needed
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how we were able to start celebrating the liturgical year in our home only by taking baby steps. And I mentioned how overwhelmed I had felt reading the first book I found about the celebrating the liturgical year in the home....
Advent: How We Try to Celebrate Things in Their Proper Season Without Feeling Like Total Jerks
Now that Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls are behind us, I'm going to make like the mall and jump right in to Christmas. Thanksgiving schmanksgiving, amitrie? (I'm kidding, we do celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact this year we'll be having 15-16 family members at our...
Hallowtide . . . It’s How We Roll: All Saints Day Costumes for Awesome Kids Only
Happy All Hallows Eve, Feast of All Saints, and Commemoration of All Souls everyone! Here's how we celebrated/are celebrating/will celebrate. For Halloween, we carved pumpkins and went trick or treating around our neighborhood. It was lovely. The weather couldn't have...
Baby Steps to Living the Liturgical Year as a Family
My Catholic faith journey has been all about baby steps. God never knocked me off my bicycle, blinded me, and gave me a talking to. It's been slow and steady the whole way. And making the feasts and fasts part of our family's day-to-day life has been no different.For...
Costumes for All Saints Day AND Halloween: One Part Catholic, Two Parts Awesome
I love the tradition of Catholic schools and homeschool groups doing All Saints dress up days in lieu of Halloween costumes. (When my son was enrolled in Kindergarten at our parish school, the Halloween costume parade was the straw that broke the camel's back for us....
Every Kid is Special (three days per year)
As a parent, I want to figure out how to pay enough attention to each child so that he knows he is precious and valued, but not so much that he ends up an entitled brat. Fortunately, we have enough kids that I think it would be really, really hard for us to err...
Make a Mud Pie (it just may save your life): 7 Quick Takes XXVII
--- 1 --- Okay, maybe that's hyperbole. But SCIENCE says that women tend to have allergies and auto-immune diseases at a statistically higher rate than men, perhaps because they don't get exposed to as much immune-system-boosting mud and dirt as children. So here my...
Drunk Octopus Wants to Fight (but I do not): 7 Quick Takes XXVI
--- 1 --- I cannot explain why I find this so amusing. It defies explanation. I just really, really like it. I want to put a bunch of these up in my house and not caption them or anything, but just chuckle to myself every time I go by one. Or maybe if I ever have a...
Some Things I Watched and Some Things I Should NOT Have Watched: 7 Quick Takes XXV
--- 1 --- I see what you did there. And I like it. I hope everyone had a lovely Solemnity yesterday. We did! I really try to incorporate traditions, historical and/or from other cultures into our liturgical feasts. But there don't seem to be all that many traditions...
Pentecost is Bigger Than Christmas
Seriously. And don't try to pretend like you already knew. Unless, like me, you have kids who use the 1963 Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism for school. In which case, like me, maybe you found out that Pentecost is bigger than Christmas in front of your first...
The Making Excuses Game
I teach my children to make excuses for bad behavior, and I don't even require that the excuses be particularly believable. It's fine if they are, but sometimes the most outlandish excuses are the most fun.And before you figure I've finally gone off the parenting...
Holidays and Holy Days: 7 Quick Takes XI
--- 1 --- So . . . holidays and holy days first. Happy Ascension Thursday (yesterday) to those of you in Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Omaha. I wish wish wish our Bishops wouldn't take feasts away from the rest of us! I wanted to take the...