Midnight Mass with Little People

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Danielle Bean is discussing taking little ones to Midnight Mass.  My children love to go to Midnight Mass. The very small ones are awed by the splendor of the Basilica (we arrive very, very early because Daddy is working) and then they are lured to sleep in pews by the sweet smell of incense.  The slightly larger ones are impressed that this is a very special feast, hence we are awake in the middle of the night.  Somehow, the words of the Christmas Novena seem to come to life in the massive church on Christmas Eve:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother. Amen.
You want to sing with the angels when the bells peal at Midnight!  You can join us this year--it would be lovely to see you in person of course.  But if you can't come to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, my husband will be directing Mass live for EWTN.  You can watch it on television.  Not quite the same without the incense, though...
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O Antiphon House

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The blogosphere has been filled with oh-so-many great ideas for celebrating Advent. Because we already have many family Advent traditions and because I've been bouncing back and forth between a sick baby and college applications, I promised myself I'd only add one new thing. 

We've never "done" the O Antiphons before this year and I've always wanted to make them part of our Advent celebration, so O Antiphon Houses seemed the perfect addition.  These wooden houses use cubes similar to those first described by Alice. My "house" isn't a house because I couldn't find houses during my one and only craft store trip.  And my cubes are twice the size of Alice's. I limited myself to only the O Antiphons because there were exactly seven cubes at the craft store.  Since there were nine boxes in the shadowbox, I commisioned Michael to craft a church and a manger out of Sculpey to fill the remaining boxes. 

Thanks to Jennifer Miller and O Night Divine, I actually know what I'm doing where the O Antiphon devotion is concerned!

Here is the "house" this morning, before we've added any blocks:

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And here is how it will look Christmas Day.  The church is for Christmas Eve and the manger is for Christmas Day:

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