Joseph's Journal--December

He's cruising on furniture, putting little fingers under the door to the lego closet in hopes of finding something good to eat....and still not sleeping through the night!

Christmas Day

Midnight Mass

For weeks Anthony has been practicing the responsorial psalm for the Christmas Vigil Mass, only to find out a week ago that he was supposed to have learned the one for Midnight Mass. He cheerfully accepted this news--and the challenge--and worked very hard on his recorder all week to learn the tune of the new psalm. At Mass he was given a special seat with the musicians and played beautifully according to Bill.

Christmas Eve--Decorating the Tree

Doing more by 9 am...

Well, by 9 am tomorrow anyway.








Here is my Christmas Eve to do list:

• Exercise
• make pie with Maria
• make sweet potatoes for tomorrow
• make dough for rolls with Thomas
• make tortilla dough with ???
• make cranberry sauce with Anthony
• wash and iron church clothes
• move the craft table into the nook to act as a sideboard for Christmas dinner
• call the UPS store to deal with a goof they made
• cut the kids' nails (and the cat's too if I can catch him)
• do laundry with the kids
• buy a space heater
• give C, J, and JD a haircut
• thaw the turkey
• make dinner!
• decorate the house with the kids
• decorate the tree with Marc, Bill and the kids
• play piano and sing along with Anthony while he practices his recorder for Midnight Mass
• copy picture files from desktop which I thought had crashed yesterday
• make stuffing
• sew myself a Christmas skirt?
• shower

My spiritual preparations have been more simple:

• You can't sing Psalm 95 --the psalm for Midnight Mass--repeatedly without reflecting on the words
• Listen to Cat Chat (Sing along: Lord, I want to prepare my heart, so that I can fix my eyes on You!)
• Offer the little frustrations of the day for my wonderful friends and family

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Feel My Pain

Anyone who has heard me moan about what bad spellers my kids are, consider this conversation:

Thomas: Mom, can I play EWTN kids on the computer?

Me (opening the browser for him): I guess so.

Thomas: I don't know how to spell "EWTN."

Christmas Tree Hunt

I admit, I find the Christmas tree farm fascinating.










How cool is it that there is a special measuring stick for Christmas trees?
Here, Anthony and Cecilia determine the tree is 6ft. It was 5 after we cut it.













We got to try out a two man saw.
Thomas, Anthony, Bill and Charles worked together to cut the tree down.













I always thought trees would be heavy, but Bill and Anthony could easily carry it back to the stand.














More specialized equipment!
Maria and James watched as the worker shook the dry needles from the tree using one machine, and then as she pulled it through the netter, Thomas asked why she didn't do it backwards (think of trying to deliver a breech baby and you'll know why).




Everyone, including Joseph, enjoyed the marshmellows.