December 21, 2006

Ummm....

December 21, 2006/ Elizabeth Foss

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!

December 19, 2006

Midnight Mass with Little People

December 19, 2006/ Elizabeth Foss

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...

December 17, 2006

O Antiphon House

December 17, 2006/ Elizabeth Foss

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: