Christmas Eve

I was woken up this morning to the gentle touch of a baby's hand against my face (yes...we co-sleep)...it was so sweet and the the first time Zaira has woken up before me.  It was a great start to our day!

I am posting this message early in the day to tell what we hope to do today...if I do this now, then I might have time to actually enjoy the experience!

We have already opened the last door of our Scriptual Crib Cabinet...placing Mary and Joseph in the Nativity scene.  We are asked to "go meet the Blessed Mother, and lead her to the manger of your heart and beg her to lay the Divine Infant in it. Shorten your chats and telephone conversations and spend more time today thinking of Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Come, dear Jesus, Come; my heart belongs to Thee.  Amen."

We also placed our last Jesse Tree Ornament...a stable to remind us of Jesus' humble birth.  We read Luke 2:11..."Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."  May we never forget the profound news that this simple verse brings us!

We will spend the day decorating our home and finishing up any special treats.  We still need to dip our snowballs and pretzels in chocolate.  We will also make rolls for our Christmas dinner and sweet rolls that we will place in the frig to bake in the morning.  Finally, we will make a pastry dough for a new recipe we are going to attempt for a side dish tomorrow.  Then we hope to be out of the kitchen.  Today is a day of fasting for us (as the feast begins tomorrow...we must not forget our focus of prayer as we prepare for the Christ Child.)

I also wanted to tell you about a music CD I happened upon while looking for my Advent music this morning.  Although it is not really considered Advent music, it really helps in the focus of the day...the best part it about it...you can obtain this CD for little to no cost (along with other ones too!)...I have loved the voice of this woman for years and all of her music that she writes is written before the Blessed Sacrament...she blends her music along with traditional hymns.  Her name is Simonetta...I strongly encourage you to go to her website and learn more about this opportunity.  Think of this as my Christmas present to you through her.


We hope to have all of these last minute preparations completed by early afternoon so we can dress for Christmas Eve Mass.  This Mass is the final culmination of anticipation before Christmas.  All of the Scripture readings and prayers are pressing us onward into the Christmas season.  Furthermore, we find through our tradition (rooted in the Jewish tradition) that a feast begins at sundown and carries over until sundown, so we leave Mass and enter into the Christmas season!  In our family, we finally break into song and joyous celebration by driving around to see all the Christmas lights (most of which have been tempting us for weeks to view!).  We love having a little contest to see if there are more revelations of Christ or Santa in the neighborhood lights.  We always pray that Jesus will win the contest...sad to say that it has gotten real close on certain years...HOWEVER, we always manage to find one more nativity scene or angel to put Jesus over the top before heading home!

We also try to make at least one stop at a fire station each year...we sing carols and offer a gift of goodies for the firemen who continue to protect us even on holidays.  I hope we can do this tonight but I am a little nervous about trying to keep the children all together by myself.  Help me, Lord, that I may be your light to others even when I am most afraid.

We then return home to light our own Christmas tree for the first time.  We enjoy wassail (along with a small snack) that has been brewing in the slow cooker while we were away.  Then off to bed as we will be waking up early for our Christmas trip to the monastery in the morning.

Traditionally, Catholics have three celebrations...we can attend all or some of these Masses...to represent the different aspects of the revelation of Christ to humanity.  The first Mass (we do not attend because the children are so young) is at Midnight...at this Mass the focus in on Christ revealed in the darkness even before Creation.  The Mass takes place in the darkness of night to reveal the true Light of the World!

Then the second celebration of Christmas day takes place at dawn...this has its focus on the birth of the Christ child.  The timing of this Mass allows the sun to reveal the Son of God...lying in a manger in humility...a humble birth for the Savior of the World!

Our family looks forward to our first celebration of Christmas which we will attend in the morning.  This would actually be the third celebration of the day, which focuses on the birth of Christ in our souls.  This grace that is revealed when we accept that Christ became man in Jesus in order to save us from our sins.

If I have time before going to sleep myself, I will try to update this post to any changes that may have happened in the course of the day.  I do hope that you will have a blessed Christmas and that Jesus will be revealed in this most sacred of HOLYdays!  God bless!

UPDATE:  I just wanted to share that our little church had a special memorial for the 27 killed in Connecticut.  There were 27 candles in front of the altar along with our nativity scene.  27 people were asked to go up and light a candle before Mass.  It was very beautiful and touching.

We also had a picture of the children taken.  They did not cooperate with the camera tonight so I will probably try again tomorrow morning.

Also, in our count for Jesus vs Santa...we had to sadly admit that there were more Santas this year...but not very many lights up at all.  It was actally quite diappointing!  However, our very last turn in the last neighborhood we drove through had the most beautiful nativity scene...it was a nice way to end the evening and so I end my post as well.

God bless!