Christmas Gifts

I finally finished the scarf for Husband: I found the baby Alpaca yarn at the local natural fibers shop on sale and wow, it is ever so soft and warm. He loved it.

The turquoise tea mug is a present for me from Number Three. I have been enjoying organic loose chamomile tea in the evenings, and it works beautifully. The yellow, handsome teapot given by Mrs. Pepino on occasion of our anniversary is the perfect complement. Thank you!

Christmas food

Homemade waffles and Colorado peaches canned last summer for this week, and perfect Date Pinwheels. Christmas!

Our newly-adopted seminarian

Number Seven made him a card, and we attended the Serra Club lunch for the diocesan's seminarians. What a wonderful group of young men! Husband chose Stephen for our family to adopt--we gave him a gift with the cute card, along with the gift of prayer. We gain immensely from each of the courageous examples of these young men! He has a beautiful smile and his humility was disarming. May God bless you, Stephen, and may He guide your studies!

Our newly-adopted seminarian

Number Seven made him a card, and we attended the Serra Club lunch for the diocesan's seminarians. What a wonderful group of young men! Husband chose Stephen for our family to adopt--we gave him a gift with the cute card, along with the gift of prayer. We gain immensely from each of the courageous examples of these young men! He has a beautiful smile and his humility was disarming. May God bless you, Stephen, and may He guide your studies!

Best images of 2011

...from Rome Reports!

My brother Eduardo

Today it is his birthday, and I pray for him. He is one of the most intelligent and talented people I know, driven, with an enormous, giving heart.

May God bless you today, dearest brother, may He comfort, guide, and reward all of your generous, life-giving efforts. I love you!

Gloria in Excelcis Deo

 Drawing courtesy of Illuminated Ink, color by Number Five. Number Six and I.

Saudades...

... a profound Portuguese word for what happens in the heart when we receive a photo of our loved ones who are so far away.

Some old, some new

The little house I made, following my aunties' homemade pattern, for our first Christmas. Number Five made the cinnamon gingerbread man last week, but the cinnamon heart was made many, many years ago by Aunt Mary, as it was the recycled paper reindeer! Number Six was given the musical note from her chamber's cello player. The papyrus boat came from Husband's trip to Ethiopia, and the beautiful painted egg from his adventures in Hungary. The pretty ceramic Madonna was given by my sister Tereza.The angels, bell, nesting doll and bird were gifts from dear friends... The little boy and girl I hung because it reminds me of Number Two, as it was bought when she was a tiny, lively, beautiful little girl. We love our simple tree and our ornaments--they tell stories of love, of travels, of friends and relatives.

A Tintin Christmas!

To celebrate the new film, Santa brought many Tintin gifts! Number Five will be proud to take her lunch to school in her new lunch box, Number Three will drink his favorite teas in his new Tintin cup, Number Seven got the new book edition (see my Amazon review here), and the girls got "Tintin in Vitenam" t-shirts from Husband's last foreign shopping trip!

Christmas daughters

I love their Christmas smiles! The photo was taken before leaving for midnight mass.

May the birth of the Lord Jesus bring renewed joy in each of their hearts!

Urbi et Orbi

I woke up thinking of the horrific news of the churches bombed in Nigeria yesterday. May God have mercy on us! Let us pray with the pope:

Urbi et Orbi: Pope sends Christmas greeting in 65 languages and asks help for Horn of Africa

December 25, 2011. (Romereports.com) By noon, thousands of people had flocked to St. Peter's Square in Rome to hear the pope's Christmas greeting, which this year sounded like this: “May the birth of the Prince of Peace remind the world where its true happiness lies; and may your hearts be filled with hope and joy, for the Saviour has been born for us”.

The pope read his Christmas speech, which mentioned the situation in the Middle East and remembered those who are facing special difficulties.

“Together let us ask God’s help for the peoples of the Horn of Africa, who suffer from hunger and food shortages, aggravated at times by a persistent state of insecurity. May the international community not fail to offer assistance to the many displaced persons coming from that region and whose dignity has been sorely tried”. 

Among the dozens of languages used by the pope, among them was Chinese, Urdu, Latin and Esperanto, which brought the applause of many of the language's admirers. 

The pope then gave his solemn blessing, the “Urbi et Orbi,” “to the city of Rome and the world”. It's significant because only he can impart the blessing. It's traditionally given only on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.

In St. Peter's Square, alongside the impressive Christmas tree from Ukraine, the traditional Nativity scene can now be seen adorning the center of Christianity, a tradition that began 30 years ago.

Christmas morning

A father takes his twelve year old to early mass, even if she has gone to midnight mass already, did not get enough sleep, and hasn't opened a single present yet: she is playing a beautiful arrangement of Joy to the World for a prelude. They stop to look at the newborn Child.

Life is filled with such moments. It is easy to disregard them completely. But O, what rewards come to the heart when we do notice them.

My heart thanks the Lord!

A personal Christmas-giving story worthy of O. Henry

Among the millions of gift choices in the world, Husband and I chose to give each other books this Christmas. Among the millions of books ever published, we chose to give each other a recent publication. From all of myriad of genres we chose the same to give to each other. From all of the contemporary authors out there, we chose the same author to gift to each other. 

Yes, Husband and I gave, after 25 years of marriage, unbeknownst to the other, the exact same gift to each other!!


The only difference was the format: he gave me the audio book download on Audible, I gave him the hardcover. Isn't it wonderful to be married to the one person in the world with whom you would most like to read and discuss a book aloud? 


Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James is a mixture of classic and murder mystery with a wonderful reference (from my favorite Willa Cather) in the title to boot! I inscribed the first page: "To my husband, what looks like finally a worthy sequel to the book you read aloud to me during our first married summer 25 years ago". 


Merry Christmas! It is warm (40F) and sunny and dry here, believe it or not! 

Surprise package!

Number Two sent us a package, a beautiful box of chocolates for each of us-- a complete surprise! Can't wait to taste them tomorrow! Thank you, lovey!

Baking day!

The cloth is a hand embroidered gift from Jannell... and it witnessed a very sweet day in the kitchen yesterday! Number Seven decided we should make a gingerbread house from scratch and finished it with the tree and little sugar-cookie guy. Hansel and Gretel would be proud.

Rabanadas!

I have developed my own version for this Portuguese recipe through the years...  The fabulous cookbook A Continual Feast has a great recipe for it and my own adapted recipe comes from it. Some families in Brazil have this during the holidays only--and I seem to do the same, although growing up we used to have it year round.

 I believe the original bread you start with should be a day old French loaf--commonly found in a Brazilian kitchen. For this batch I used a homemade, dense bread I had extras of, sliced about one 3/4 inches thick. I scalded the milk and added about 1/2 Tsbp lemon juice to it, some sugar and 3 eggs. The slices soaked in there and were fried in vegetable oil and then rolled in sugar.

Delicious breakfast with fresh coffee.

O Emmanuel!

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,

exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:

veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,

the hope of the nations and their Saviour:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Tintin: Superb!

We took over 90% of the movie theater, our family plus twelve other families from the homeschool group, and were all delighted by a wonderful show! Number One and I discussed the movie over breakfast this morning, and our combined overall review--and being Tintin lovers we are very picky reviewers--was very, very favorable:

• the film kept the atmosphere, feel of the Tintin stories
• no politically-correct distortions
• incredible attention to detail in every scene, we felt as if inside one of the books
• the 3-D effect awesome!
• the initial scene of Tintin being drawn by Herge' at the art fair won all of our hearts
• the Catholic reference of St. John the Evangelist in the final scene was left intact (see original page of book here)
• and many more...  

Thank You, Aunt Sarah!

We enjoyed different treats from your wonderful box this morning already! Thank you and merry Christmas!

Have gingersnaps...

O Rex Gentium

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

Image credit here.

O Dawn of the East

O Oriens,

splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:

veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Dawn of the East, 

Brightness of the Light Eternal and Sun of Justice, 

come and enlighten them that dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The Hobbit: The Trailer!

Enjoy!
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thehobbit/

From Fr. B. A.

Good friend Fr. B. A. just sent me this. Wonderful news indeed, especially for North America! I can't wait to see what will be the official portrait of the native American saint, to be unveiled at the canonization ceremony. She will be for now on another heavenly saint as I pray for each of my children.


KATERI TEKAKWITHA: FIRST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SAINT

VATICAN CITY, 20 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father yesterday signed decrees acknowledging miracles attributed to the intervention of seven blesseds (four women and three men) who will shortly be canonised. One of the new blesseds is Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American to be raised to the glory of the altars.

  Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Ossernenon (present-day Auriesville, U.S.A.). Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother a Roman Catholic Algonquian who had been educated by French missionaries. At the age of four she lost her family in a smallpox epidemic which also left her disfigured and with poor eyesight. Adopted by a relative, the chief of neighbouring clan, she continued to nurture an interest in Christianity and was baptised at the age of 20.

  The members of her tribe did not understand her new religious affiliation and she was marginalised, practising physical mortification as a path of sanctity and praying for the conversion of her relatives. Having suffered persecutions which put her life at risk, she was forced to flee to a native American Christian community in Kahnawake, Quebec where she made a vow of chastity and lived a life dedicated to prayer, penance, and care for the sick and elderly. She died in 1680 at the age of 24. Her last words were: "Jesus, I love you". According to tradition, Kateri's scars disappeared after her death to reveal a woman of great beauty, and numerous sick people who participated in her funeral were miraculously healed.

  The process of canonisation began in 1884. She was declared venerable by Pius XII in 1943 and beatified by John Paul II in 1980. As the first native North American to be beatified she occupies a special place in the devotion of her people. Her feast day falls on 14 July.

O Clavis David

Today's O Antiphon:

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel,

qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperuit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel,

controlling at your will the gate of heaven:

Come, break down the prison walls of death

for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death;

and lead your captive people into freedom.

From my reader Kathie

Kathie emails from Canada once in a while and it is always so nice to hear from her. She sent me this idea for a homemade Christmas craft. Here are the instructions:


Here is my go-to craft idea for 2011.  (You don't want to know how many stars I fashioned this Christmas!)  I thought you might be interested for your craft session for next year (or anytime in between).  I made the outside star shape with thicker copper wire, and then used thinner copper wire to wrap the beads around the star shape.  It is a good way to use up excess beads in the house.  Use large and small beads.  Wrap the wire loosely, several times around the shape.  Plus, you can personalize it with various coloured beads.

I am sure Jannell will love the idea! It does sound like a great craft for using all of those excess beads in the girls' supply. Thank you and God bless you, Kathie!

Homemade gifts from Aunt Sue

Number Three brought a box of homemade goodies from Aunt Sue in Texas: the sugar scrubs make the skin feel so soft! A box of fudge, caramel and holiday beverages too! We were surprised and delighted! Thank you, Aunt Sue!

Number Three is at home!

He surprised me with a very handsome haircut! And he grew too, to almost his dad's height. I think he looks very handsome!

O Radix Jesse

Today's O Antiphon: O Radix Jesse

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

Christmas at the Cathedral

 Number Seven spent the past week in a very busy performance schedule: she was the Brazilian child around the manger scene at the Christmas at the Cathedral, an annual Christmas music show. All six performances were sold out! Our family attended the very last show last night and I was able to take a picture of her before she went in, and of the finale, from the choir loft. The show will be on the local NBC station on Christmas eve and I will record it then. She enjoyed every minute of it and wishes there were more performances!

Packages, packages

Packages are delivered daily these days as online shopping has become very convenient, only to swiftly and mysteriously disappear. Two recent packages, however, were opened on-arrival! The first was the new edition of Fenestrae Fidei by Sean Fitzpatrick, with a new cover--by our own Number Five! The new edition cover is already displayed on Amazon.com! (It was four years ago that we worked on that project and I wrote the L2L review, see here). Congratulations, Number Five!


Number Four was the recipient of the second package: he is a senior and just purchased his own laptop, not without careful research. I don't need to say much--the photos tell it all.