And the Best Present of all is Nicholas!

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Happy, happy birthday dear boy!  I will never forget how the snow started to fall outside our window just after you were born.  I will never forget the tiny baby tucked into a stocking.  I will never forget that the best Christmas present I've ever, ever received was Nicholas Karol Foss! Don't you ever forget that I love you SO MUCH!

Thanksgiving0016_1

Ummm....

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This thread leads me to think that I may have misled some of you.  The Tomie de Paola unit was written ten years ago and, over the course of ten years, my family and I have indeed done all the activities, some of them many times.  But we have never, ever come even close to doing all of them in one year. During the new baby years, we pick a few favorites and that's all we do.  We frequently do it instead of "real" school.We are in full-swing baby-mode this year, finding that answering the cries of a wee one and rocking a baby to sleep are advent devotions in and of themselves.

I know that lapbooks are nearly impossible with a baby in one's arms.  And crafts can be tricky when everyone is under seven.  I've been there and those were the co-op years or the years of just baking some simple cookies and sprinkling sugar everywhere.

We are also in "Michael's last" mode this year, as in "This is Michael's last advent to..."  Since Michael is our resident artisan,he is taking this opportunity to do some of his favorite crafts with his little siblings.If all your children are very little, take heart.  There will come a day when one or more of them is better at some of this than you are.  And they will teach while you snap pictures.

Again, I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that we've done everything listed here.  It's not about the quantity; it never was.  It's about drawing closer to one another and to God.  And some days, in this home, we draw closer by just doing the best we can with a smile.God love you!

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...
Basillica0012