Our 12 days, so far...

On the eve of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...
a lovely Christmas luncheon, a trip to Holy Mass and prayer in front of our stunning parish nativity.

On the first day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...
sleeping in til 9am, siblings getting along, lots of pretty presents and spaghetti lunch in front of our nativity.

On the second day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...
sweet memories of Christmas dinner with cousins, cleaning our bedroom, topped off with a
small nativity.

On the third day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...
morning Mass praying with the Holy Family, a chaffeured drive to Kentucky, an elegant home-cooked dinner and family dogs romping together in our continued celebration of our Savior's Holy Nativity.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me...
Mimi's delicious hot coffee on a brisk, winter morning with more romping dogs, a quiet afternoon with Jaybird and a movie and a love of prolonged Christmas, thinking always of that blessed nativity

Think long, think wrong - ha ha!

Mary Engelbreit's art has inspired me since my college years. I just put this as my desktop wallpaper. In our case, the kitten is our new puppy, Ginny. Go visit Mary's website for lots of inspiration for Christmas and the new year 2010.

New puppy photos!

...and she laid Him in a manger...

Today, the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will try hard to dig out our family's lovely Nativity scene. I am reading this and this to better prepare myself for the natural discussions and questions that will come as we place our figures around our home. Maybe, with careful planning, we can be ready to plant an Immaculate Conception rose bush out back next Advent 2010. Like lots of mothers who are converts, it is wonderful for me to make a file of traditional customs, crafts and songs that I want to add to our family's preparations for the most moving Feast of the Nativity. This excerpt below is from the Catholic Culture link -- so beautiful:

Why was Christ born? ...God loved man and He sent His Son as a tiny Baby. Get the children to think why He came as a baby. (We adults need to think of this too, SS.) They will think of good reasons. Lead them on to see that God wanted to be close to us, a little baby in our midst, because He loves us. One of His names, "Emmanuel," means God-with-us.

The point to make clear is that He came for love. Few people take in the fact vividly that God loves us, and that is, after all, the greatest fact of life. If He loves us, we love Him back. We don't want to displease Him. We thank Him for loving us, knowing that the love of God for us is something so great that we cannot even begin to be grateful enough.