"These are days when the great notes struck on the feast of
Christmas echo and re-echo in our ears until the Epiphany gathers
them into a great golden chord."
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS - ELSA CHANEY
Catholic Culture has some reading and activities for each of the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany here
God approaches gently, often secretly, always in love, never through violence and fear. He comes to us as He himself has told us, in those whom we know in our own lives. Very often we do not recognize Him. He comes in many people we do not like, in all who need what we can give, in all who have something to give us, and for our great Comfort. He comes in those we love, in our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our friends and our children. Because of this, we must not be content ever to love with only natural love. We must also love with a supernatural, sacramental love. We must love them with Christ's love in us.
Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross - Caryll Houselander
Taking some time to slowly unpack all that these lines contain, all the implications. Where am I missing Him right now? In whose face? In what circumstance?
The first Christmas we spent in the Utah house we realized that the tree we had purchased some years earlier was not quite right for a room with a cathedral ceiling. We bought another that suited the room better but noticed that artifical trees these days are significantly higher off the ground than the older ones. For two years now we have placed a tree skirt around the bottom, noticed the vast space between that and the branches, and said to each other, "Hmm. That really does look odd being SO high."
Given our very traditional holiday decor, I had been looking at the new tree collars available and fell in love with the ones like this that were fashioned like Christmas drums:
I was not in love with the price tag however, which ran up to $85 some places, especially since many wide trees need two collars to fit around. We found this video online and ended up DIY-ing a collar for about ten dollars. It was putzy but easy and I am ridiculously pleased. If this is not your thing please just scroll quickly lol. I'm a little tree obsessed. While we are at it, I stumbled upon this tutorial a few years ago and it turns out there is a proper order to tree trimming. I have incorporated some of their ideas such as the floral picks. Cheap and easy way to fill in your tree and add texture.
So now that you know what a tree geek I am, if you are still with me, here are some phone snaps of the tree collar process. I cut heavy posterboard to the desired height (floor to bottom of tree) and taped those together to get the circumference needed.
We covered the resulting long strip of poster board with wrapping paper. Fabric would have been nicer and sturdier, no doubt. We were aiming for speed and cheap and have no toddlers at the moment. Next, I glued gold ribbon.
Then we trimmed the top and bottom with plaid ribbon.
There you have it. One woman's giant paper drum. I can laugh at my own ideas y'all. I can laugh. I'm still happy I did this.
Being homeowners we had enough paint cans lying around to place one between each leg of the tree base to round it. (per the video) Then we wrapped this tube around, clipped it with a large chip clip, and tossed a white sheet inside. I wanted the drum effect but not enough to do any more DIYing.
PS – there are some strong opinions in cyber space about artificial versus tree farm trees. They both have their merits! I love a fresh tree. Due to some allergies and budget and the recent fires in the west we are happily decorating our faux tree for now.
Gaudete! The foundation of the Christmas decorations are in place. Reason to rejoice right there! We have a steady stream of arrivals starting early this week so this is essential. From here out we will be making rooms ready and baking special treats. There will be flowers to arrange and paper stars to cut out and carols to practice. There are other things we could not get to this advent. Hand written Christmas cards were on that list. It makes me sad, but in the end it is most important to keep things light and let go of what cannot be happily done.
I hope you have a fruitful final week of advent, enjoying the simple things of this season, wherever you are reading this.
"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things—not the great occasions—give off the greatest glow of happiness."
Bob Hope
There was a knock at the door the other evening. Our neighbor spotted a small screech owl in the trees and called me out to try to capture him. (in camera, that is) He allowed us to get near enough to do just that. Then slowly floated down into the hollow below.
let the little things amaze you; that's how you'll remember life is a miracle. - alexandra wolf
While Tess served as St Lucy this morning I thought back over so many, many cinnamon rolls served by braided little girls in our home. It takes a little extra planning to remember to pick up the rolls and set out some white clothes but as Charlotte Seims' words reminded me in my morning reading:
"Traditions create a sense of belonging and comfort. Children relish those things that 'we always do,' and the once-a-year foods and décor call up a sense of wonder and excitement like nothing else."
Like nothing else, truly. It's not the once in a lifetime big events, but the repetition of little things year after year that brings so much delight. It's what we always do in our family on this day and it is wonderful. I like to think it is as comforting to them as it is to me to slip into a groove laid down over the course of so many years.
I came across this small prayer catching up on Katrina Kenison's blog which is always so encouraging and calming to me. It seemed a good one:
"I humbly ask for the healing power of your grace to help me sit with uncertainty, rather than to try to force answers before their time. Please grant me the faith that all will made clear in due time and let me surrender all my concerns over to You until then. Please send your angels to help me calm my anxiety and trust that I will be guided so I can relax. I thank You in advance, with my whole heart and soul for answering my prayer as I surrender to You."
Sonia Choquette
The city is only a half hour or so away but it usually takes company to prompt me to drive in. Colin's visit got me downtown. We hit a museum first and were a little overconfident about the crowds. When we moved to the city center we realized that's where the people were all hanging out. Temple Square had their tree lighting that day so we shopped and walked and waited around until after dusk then walked back to the car through the Christmas lights. With thousands of our closest friends lol.
This really launched us into the holiday season. It was so much nicer to go see the lights this year at 40 degrees than it was the last time at 4 degrees! Just a beautful day all around.
Our phones were upgraded last week. I was expecting this to be a non-event for me, other than taking the plunge to the larger screen. I long ago gave up taking photos on my old phone. They were bad from the day I got it. My pleasant surprise this past week has been the phone camera. It works! It works well! Such a blessing for documenting on the go. And that's just what I did when this young man wanted to try a new recipe today – Apple Dutch Baby Pancakes
He did a great job and actually caught my recipe reading errors before they became recipe making errors. (And yes those are repurposed protein powder tubs up there.)
Starry Sky Journal 