Home but Homesick, and Holiday Plans!

Even though I am very happy to be HOME, I am "homesick" for the wonderful family time we had together on the road and in Phoenix! If you are friends with me on FB I'm sure you saw all the photos and videos I posted ad nauseum. :) It was an amazing trip. In our moms book group we are reading "Story of a Soul" by Saint Therese, and there is a section about the time period of her youth where her family moved to be near her Aunt & Uncles home at 'Les Buissonets' and it was a very wonderful sheltered time with her family there, yet the commentary says as we will see in the following chapter, this sheltering always comes with a price.

That is how I feel about our trip in a way, it was so needed and lovely to have everyone together - VERY together, as in all in one vehicle or all in one hotel or condo bedroom.  Without the everyday collisions of meshing too many schedules and the pressures and demands of "regular" life.  We just loved it, and created so many amazing memories.  But there is definitely a price and a shock when you jump back into everyday life- I feel temporarily kind of like "the salt that has lost it's saltiness".  I'm working on building back routine and  momentum without allowing it to snowball into such a monster of busyness again! That's quite the trick with family life. 

For this reason and many others, I am so grateful for the upcoming season of Advent!  Advent is hands down my favorite liturgical season.  It is a great lesson in practicing the balance between being and doing.  We are all SOO busy getting things ready this time of year, and we are also being called to draw into ourselves and ready our hearts, to be present in this bustling world, but to be at the same time detached from it.  To take a step back and see ourselves as part of a long story of salvation history, and to wait again for the baby Jesus to be born in our world, our Church, our families, our hearts. It is also a time if preparation and awaiting the second coming of Christ.  I love this time and can't wait to open the big Advent box with the kids this Sunday! 

We are planning to do our same traditions this year as the past couple years,

and the O Antiphons added last year:  

We have also been so blessed this past year with Robbie's job and as one tiny way of thanking God we are going to sponsor a family through Milwaukee Catholic Charities. I heard that they are really down in donations this year, due to the economy- their website is:  http://www.ccmke.org/Catholic-Charities/OffNavUtility/ChristmasGiving.htm    Also, the kids' school has a yearly collection of warm winter hats mittens etc for children one week, then women one week, and men one week.  The St. Ben's organization gives these winter items to people who are on the street 14 hours a day sometimes which I can't imagine in Milwaukee weather.

As it has turned colder, the kids have been praying for the homeless more often in our intentions on the way to school so this will be a really nice way to be DOING something about the cold & homeless in their own small way.  The kids do not have allowances or their own money really so they will do extra jobs around the house for us to help earn the winter items purchased.  

We also have a tradition of making homemade "Aunt and Uncle" gifts.  Usually on the week of Thanksgiving break we bake gingerbread cookies and decorate them individually for Aunts and Uncles and wrap and freeze them.  But this year we were on the trip, so instead we are going to (hopefully) make our own candle tins and decorate the outsides with mod-podged something.  We'll get a hunk of candle wax and wicks and stands to melt and pour candles into all those cute little empty Rishi tea tins that I STILL have boxes full of in the garage.

I like to make homemade gifts for the kids too and this year, when we were at the miraclous Loretto staircase chapel in New Mexico, in their gift store they had some really nice childrens books, including these three which we purchased for the kids for Christmas: The Church Mouse of the Loretto Chapel (I have no idea why it is selling for that much on amazon!), Mary and the 50 States, and this one that I have seen so often on several blogs especially on Shower of Roses: An Alphabet of Catholic Saints!  I FINALLY did it and bought the wooden peg dolls, so I am making the alphabet of peg doll Saints to go with this book as a gift for Sam and Leo.  So excited for that. 

Yay for cozy nights of Advent wreath lighting and gift making and Jesse tree readings and of preparation.  We are making our hearts ready now for your birth! - Come Lord Jesus, Come!