I hope you have a very blessed Christmas season. May the gift of the Incarnation fill you with incredible joy now and always. I am off the Internets until January 2014. God bless!
1. We are decorated for Christmas. We wait until Gaudete Sunday, and we are thinking about waiting until the 4th Sunday of Advent next year. We went to a small Christmas Tree farm nearby and cut our own tree down for $12. It was so much fun. It was my first time cutting down a tree as a family. It is pretty cold in my native Montana this time of year, so we always went out and bought a tree from a lot. Michaela even helped her daddy carry the tree to the car.
Anger. Why are so many of us angry? Do we realize that we are angry? Does it bother us? I was just observing a Twitter exchange, I can’t really call it a debate. There was too much profanity and no intellectual exchange for it to be considered a debate. What struck me though, as has happened before, was the level of anger this person lobbed at a friend of mine.
Sometimes honesty in Catholic circles can be difficult. It is hard to admit to others that our vocation is just plain hard, that marriage can be messy and rough. I have been married for 3.5 years. We did not have a “honeymoon phase” as I was pregnant 3 months into our marriage and was sick as all get out for all 9 months of my pregnancy. I even threw up when I was in labor. Other hyperemesis sufferers, I know your pain. My husband had to take care of me for most of my pregnancy, while working full-time. After I had our beautiful daughter, I developed debilitating post-partum depression/anxiety, something that I have lived with off and on after all of my miscarriages too, including currently. Not to mention that my husband’s has migraines that have resulted in a few hospital visits.
We have made it more than half way through Advent. Next week we will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity and begin the Christmas season. Our joy is even greater, as we passed through Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday. We are nearing the end of this season of waiting in joyful hope, although, we wait in joyful hope daily for the Second Coming.
This is a busy time of year, but it is a holy time of year. Writing Christmas cards can become a burden and be done in a hurried or impersonal way. I have found great joy in praying for each person or family as I write their Christmas card. My message is short and is one of hopeful blessings for each recipient, but each one will know that I prayed for them. Give it a try and see how it alleviates a task that can easily become a burden in this rushed season.
It is a gray and dreary day here with a mix of rain and sleet. This type of day makes me think about my favorite books. It is the perfect kind of day to tuck in with a favorite book and a peppermint mocha. Yeah, still working on that coffee addiction. Thank Our Lord for his patience on the path to holiness.
I am slowly starting to incorporate the liturgical calendar into our lives. My husband and I did not grow up that way, so we are learning as we go. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Since I work in pro-life ministry and help women in crisis pregnancy, she is very dear to me as the Patroness of the Unborn, and the Americas.
Today I am linked up over at CatholicMom.com’s Small Success Thursday. Think about a few of your small successes for this week and share them with us.
I am having one of those days in Motherhood and as a Christian when “I do the very thing I hate” to quote Saint Paul. I have allowed little things and my own failures drag me down. That is what the Devil wants. He would rather I wallow in self-pity rather than ask The Lord for the strength to keep moving forward.