St Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas Day started bright and early because it was a very busy, full day and before school was the only time we could all be together at home.  After school, we had basketball practice, my niece's first birthday party, and was topped off by Brian and I sneaking off downtown to see Seinfeld at the Majestic Theater.  

First thing we let everybody get dressed for school and let the kids look in their stockings.  The big kids got a few items bigger than would fit in their stockings.  Isaac got a ukulele, Genevieve got a weighted blanket, and Hannah got Chacos that unfortunately didn't fit width wise.

Lots of small gifts made these kids very happy!

Genna LOVES to listen to audio books more than anyone in our house.  She likes to craft and hand-letter, and work on puzzles while listening to our Audible library.  We got her her very own head phone for this purpose and the hat is a bun hat.

Isaac has learned quite a few parts of songs from his friends already and is learning songs in the beginners book he also received in just less than a month of owning it.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Bob plays with his mini etch-a-sketch.  The boys loved them!

Feast of Corpus Christi

St. Josefkirche

The last real day of our friend's visit was the Feast of Corpus Christi and, therefore, a holiday where everything would be closed.  So we decided to embrace the feast day since it seemed that a city only an hour away was going to have a real procession from one church to another instead of the kind we've always been to where everyone processes around a parking lot and back to the church.  Let me just say, it was a great decision!  I wasn't feeling great that day, but it was still worth it.  The procession began at Saint Joseph's Church (Sankt Josefkirche) and ended at the main cathedral in Speyer.

It was difficult to find parking and then a bathroom (Churches never have bathrooms in Europe!) and it took us a while to get seated and situated.  When the music started, we all took a big sigh and knew we'd made the right decision.  The organ and choir were amazing and the service very reverent.  

Procession

The procession was lead by the priests and the Blessed Sacrament and there were kids who had brought baskets of rose petals to scatter as we processed.  There was singing and a speaker system followed behind so everyone could hear.  It was hot, but really a unique experience for us all.

The Floor Flower Art 

 At the end point, Speyer Cathedral, the priests prayed outside before they moved inside for a homily.  In front of the church was a floral religious decoration on the ground.  That is very common on this feast day here everywhere.

After they peeked at the inside of the cathedral and realized because of the service continuing they wouldn't be able to really tour it, we went to a restaurant that we had been to before right across the street from the cathedral.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed the playground at the restaurant.  The dad's had to be pulled away from the restaurant because they seemed to be enjoying it for far longer than the rest of us.  I mentioned I wasn't feeling well, and it had gotten worse after all the walking in the heat.  The kids were still asking for ice cream and more playgrounds on the walk back to the van, but I had to put my foot down there.  

At the Speyer Cathedral

We had promised them we'd try to be home in time for the kids to just spend relaxed time together at the house since we really didn't have any other time in the whole two weeks for that, but, alas, we didn't get home until 4pm.  It was still the earliest night I think we had, but it's not what the girls had in mind for sure.

The next day was just straight to the airport for our dear friends.  We were sad to see them go, but, boy, did we squeeze every last drop out of their time with us in Europe!  No regrets!

St. Nicholas' Feast Day

 St. Nicholas' Day was a busy one this year.  It started bright and early with German Saturday school until noon.  Then it was straight to a neighborhood St. Nicholas party.  Then we came home to rest and nap until 4pm.  Then it was time for the real St. Nicholas gifts to begin.  This year there were more gifts than usual because it was my parents' second to last day here and they wanted to give everyone their Christmas presents so they could see them open them.

Here's what they got from us for St. Nicholas' Day.

Drew got some super awesome Superman slipper boots with muscles and capes.

February Feasts

There are so many wonderful Saint feast days this month!

St. Blaise on Feb 3rd

At daily Mass, the priest blessed all our throats individually just like you see in the picture except with smaller candles. When it was Isaac's turn, he backed up and said loud enough for all the church to hear, "What are dees dings?" with his eyebrows raised. He got a good chuckle out of Father Carlos and probably many others behind us. I sometimes forget to make sure he is listening when I explain things ahead of time to the girls.

St. Josephine Bakhita on Feb 8th


St. Josephine is an amazing saint, and I LOVE the name! We read about her and colored this picture from Waltzing Matilda. This is Hannah's picture only because Genna's is missing. Surprise, surprise. My absent-minded sweetie. Isaac colored a creation picture this day since it was the old testament reading for Mass. I thought it would keep his attention better, but he still turned it over to draw on the back well before Adam and Eve were colored.

St. Scholastica on Feb 10th


She may be one of my very favorite saints if I had to pick. We have a this book...


It is a great book! She was able to do more because she loved more. That is such a beautiful message. I read the book while they ate their lunch today. Then at rest time the girls colored a picture that I drew from the illustrations in this book. Hope I am not ripping off the wonderful Tomie dePaola by doing this. It is just for the girls. I was hoping to just draw one and make copies, but they were both wanting different pictures of her. I relented and drew two since I enjoy it anyway. Perfectionista Hannah did not like that I wrote the quote, She was able to do more because she loved more on her page so she colored over it with green grass. Stinker! She didn't even want me to put my name on my own drawing. I guess I was defiling her picture.

The other thing I thought was telling about my daughters and their personalities was that Hannah specifically chose the younger, pre-nun Scholastica so that she could color it accurately and not have to just use black. Genevieve chose the nun version of Scholastica and ignored the typical nun habit colors and colored her a rainbow habit because those are her favorite colors...all of them! I love them both so much!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Ho ho ho! Hannah dressed herself up as St. Nicholas last night in her's dad's red shirt, a scarf as a belt, my giant white slippers, and a plastic bag as her beard. What an imagination!

Yesterday, the girls and I hung the ornaments on the tree. We hung our stockings up and made chocolate chip cookies together (with Isaac's help) while Daddy hung up Christmas lights outside.

Isaac's St. Nicholas gifts

Genevieve's St. Nicholas gifts

Hannah's St. Nicholas gifts

My blurry attempt at a photo of our Christmas tree, nativity scene on our altar, and Jesse tree with the St. Nicholas gifts under the tree. I'll get a better one up soon.

Isaac after getting his gifts with his new Woody.

Geneveive with her jewelry box that she called a jingle box since it plays music.

Hannah with her Hello Kitty and her spinning jewelry holder.

We read the story and ended up having a light school day since we had a pro-life rally to go at the Germantown Reproductive Health Clinic where they have hired a late term abortionist. We'll make up the schoolwork on Friday.

Happy All Saint's Day!

We had our All Saint's celebration on Saturday evening. We began with the vigil Mass, followed by a parade of saints. Here's the parade...

Then we went outside for a pizza picnic...

The leaves were a big hit with all the kids!

When it got dark, the kids made their way through twenty-four stations, each with a saint prayer or quote. They were given candy at each station as well. I manned St. John Bosco's station and Brian took the kids through the stations. It really was a lot of fun!

Halloween is always a topic of discussion in our house. Our decision to allow trick-or-treating is based on the principle that we will teach our kids to be a light in the world, but not be of the world. They can participate in the fun of trick-or-treating as long as they wear holy costumes and don't get into the ghoulish stuff. I hope our kids dressing as saints and angels will be a light in the midst of monsters and ghosts. So I took them around the cul-de-sac (plus a few extra houses down the street) in their saint costumes. Then we came back to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in front of a fire and a have a couple pieces of candy. Then off to bed so we could get up for Mass this morning. They had so much fun and all went to bed extra happy little kiddos for the second night in a row.

I found these Charlie Brown accessories at Joann's for our pumpkin.

Sneak Peek

We have an All Saint's Party with our homeschooling group this coming weekend, but the kids got to wear their costumes for the church party last weekend.

St Clare and St Genevieve, notice the accessories, a bread crumb container turns monstrance for St Clare and a candle for St Genevieve.

Add in St Micheal the Archangel in only half his costume because the we needed him to fit in the car seat. He looks more like Robin Hood here, but wait for it...

Add a pair of wings, a sword, and a transformed milk jug helmet and Robin Hood becomes St Micheal the Archangel ready to defeat the demons. My inspiration for this costume came partially from here.

Parade of Costumes

Note to self: do not try to get kids to take a picture when they have just been given cupcakes. It cracks me up that Genna's is on the way into her mouth and Hannah's already got the evidence of her bite before the shot on her mouth!

About their costumes, I made Hannah's and Isaac's from old t-shirts and some felt pieces. Genna's was from old fabric I had in my stash. Each one took about an hour and it was so fun!