O Christmas Tree

Operation Decorate Tree completed at 20:30 this evening

More photos and stories from a very fun family day coming soon.....

Goodbye Holy House Till 2012 and a Sophie-ism

Last Wednesday, instead of our normal school day at Children of the Holy House, we enjoyed Mass, an Advent program and a luncheon.  It was our first time attending Mass at Our Lady of Walsingham and was quite the experience for all of us.  For example, it was first time attending a Mass where the priest faced away from the congregation.  It was my first time using a communion rail.  The sign of peace happened before the presentation of the gifts rather than right before communion.  In fact, everyone knelt from the presentation of the gifts until communion.  It was definitely a different experience for us.  The girls were enthusiastic and want to go every week before classes--a true feat for us as we would have to leave the house before 7 AM.  For me, the Mass gave me an appreciation of the gift of the rituals involved in the Mass.  I felt a bit cheated that I had not experienced it that way before.  After all, those choices were made by others not by me.  

After Mass, we assembled outside for "Las posadas".  I had been asked to sing a verse because I know Spanish and had practiced it over and over on the forty five minute drive to HH that morning.  My verse was, "Ya se pueden ir y no molestar porque si me enfado, os voy a apalear" which means, "you (Mary and Joseph) can leave now and not be a bother because if I get mad, I'm going to beat you with a stick". I got the worst verse.  But did a great job--probably all of that last minute practicing.  I loved the song.  I want to do our own version of "Las posadas" in the back yard.  Maybe not this year.....  

 Mary and Joseph at one of the posadas

That's Grace under the brown blanket being a shepherd

 Wee Saints

 The boy behind Sophie is her friend John

John's mom is their teacher.  When I dropped Sophie off with her before the program I checked, "okay, so you have Sophie?" She said, "And Sophie has John" :)

 Mia and buddy Carolyn spectate

 Madeleine led a Christmas pantomime

 Mia's Latin class recited a prayer and sang "Adeste Fidelis"

Her teacher, Mrs. Roy made their song booklets which gave them quite the air of professionals.

 Ella's first time at Holy House

Grandma and Grandpa Doyle's too

Back at home:  we've been making lots and lots of candy cane cookies--and 

squashed piles of red dough

Sophie-ism:  At bath time tonight, I was talking to Sophie about swim team.  She said, "I wish they had a stroke called "Mermaid", I'd be really fast at that one.  :)

Does it feel strange to you to have Christmas on a Sunday?  It's throwing me off......

One week to go!!

Trad-i-tion, Tradition

A few posts ago, I wrote about learning about myself, the ongoing saga. If you know me well, one thing you cannot miss is my love of tradition and my need to find meaning in the things I do. I have always loved traditions and drove my parents crazy growing up insisting that things be the same year to year--like the Christmas tree's place in the living room.

One of the challenges I've faced as the mom of my own big family has been to decide what to do with the traditions I inherited and the ones I've heard about since. Truth is, if there were a contest scoring number of traditions, I would probably win. I love them. Traditions connect the past to the present to the future and, in doing so, are timeless. They add meaning and make things simpler, acting as tiny dictators insisting that things be done at a particular time in a particular way. And the more the better really.

One of my family's traditions growing up was decorating the tree on Christmas Eve. For most people, the idea of waiting so late seems ridiculous but you'll just have to take my word for it--it was incredible. Every Christmas Eve, we spent most of the day listening to Christmas carols--records like the Carpenters and such--and decorating the tree. Dad bought chocolate Santas from Fannie May, the candy company not the loan people. I loved the chocolate Santas. They were so pretty and perfect and we all hid as many as possible in obscure places on the tree so as to eat of our own private stash long after the ones hidden in plain view had been consumed. After throwing the last icicles on the tree, we all stood back, sighed, and said a collective, "this is the prettiest tree we've ever had". Then Dad spent a very long time vacuuming up pine needles. Dad's vacuuming played a prominent role in my Christmas memories.

Here at Casa Doyle, we have preserved some of my childhood traditions and added some of our own. We always have lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner for example. I don't know how that started but the girls look forward to it and I find it easy to execute a definite plan rather than dreaming up something new each year. We watch It's a Wonderful Life every year. The girls have a sister sleep over in Madeleine's room.

Growing up, there were many years when my imagination was bigger than what Santa brought. The stuff of Christmas was never really what carried the day. It was always, hands down, the tradition. I loved the ritual of celebrating Christ's birth in a particular way year after year. I still do. I miss Christmas at 2503 Lisbon Lane. It was simply wonderful.

Advent Angels in the House

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about our ill-fated stint as Advent Angels for our buddies from Teams of Our Lady.  The rest of that story is that the girls decided we should pick Advent Angels within our house.  I decided that Sophie and Ella would need partners so Chris and I paired up with them and we picked names.  While there hasn't been a whole lot of AA action around Casa Doyle, a couple of them have definitely been busy.

Don't forget--your angel is watching over you too :)

Best wishes for a great day tomorrow!

Funny

I find this funny--maybe because it could be me at times leading up to Christmas.

May your season be more merry than not!

About Her...and Her...and Her, Her, Her and Me

Post-Semester Wrap-Up

Life is racing by at the speed of light. The older the girls get, the faster it goes and the farther behind I feel. The feeling of time slipping through my hands is one of those cliché experiences of the human race. We all feel like we don't have enough because....we don't. And we can't buy more. If we could, Steve Jobs would surely still be in a conference room of Apple doing his thing.

Being a blogger, I experience time flying by on another level in that I simply cannot capture all of the moments and memories worth capturing. I often find myself composing in my head. I find myself saying an absent-minded "And also with you" at Mass because my Catholic autopilot function has not been updated. I'm ashamed to admit that I compose some really great blog posts in Mass. They tend to be about God so I suppose you could say I'm not completely off task.

Today's post is an update post designed to tell you a bit about all of the "hers" that make my life so amazing--and so pink!

About Her (Madeleine, 16): Madeleine is learning to drive. I do not especially like to ride with her because it makes me seriously nervous. I know my trepidation hurts M's feelings and, truth be told, she really is a careful driver who, incredibly, is able to repeat verbatim everything she learned in Driver's Ed.  Come to think of it, she's probably a better driver than I am, you know, not turning into the outside lane, not driving one-handed or failing to notice the speed limit. Let's just call this a growth area for both of us.

Madeleine has become a very good piano player. She plays two songs that I especially love--Princess Leia's Theme and Lullabye by Billy Joel. That second one makes my heart melt every time.

It often happens that Madeleine will respond to something I say with, "That's not nice!" To which I say, "I am not nice! When did I ever say that I was nice?" I find it quite amusing as does she (most of the time). Of course, I do have a gigantic magnet on the fridge that says, "Be Nice or Leave" so I suppose I'm promoting a double standard. Given my status as head cook, maid, waitress, teacher and chauffeur, I'd say it's only fair. Being nice on top of all that seems a bit much to ask.

A few times lately, I've looked at Madeleine and noticed how absolutely beautiful she is. Yes, I'm her mother and would think she was beautiful no matter what but objectively, Madeleine is a beautiful girl. In fact, she's a lot like the girl in the Sammy Kershaw song about whom he says, "She don't know she's beautiful".

About Her (Mia, 9): It's funny--until this fall, I would have always said that Mia is the daughter least like me. She's quiet and reserved and looks like an indian princess. She auditioned for a play recently though and in preparing her song was very much like her mama. Her gestures were broad and dramatic and her voice was strong without a trace of self-consciousness. If her song had been "Tomorrow", she could have passed for a little Alice. It touched my heart.

My favorite Mia memory of late though was the night she asked me to lie with her. Mia is a bit of a contradiction in that she is very sweet and even empathetic with me but she tends to push me away, wipe off kisses and get upset if we hug her too hard or too much. So, it surprised me that she wanted me to cuddle up with her. I did, reluctantly, because I was very tired and knew that lying down would probably sabotage any plans to do anything else that evening. As we lay there in the dark, not far from where Grace was lying, already asleep with a blindfold across her eyes to block out the light, Mia told me stories. They were little episodes from the book she's reading--the Mandie series. It was so soothing to lay there with my eyes closed and listen to my baby baby me. I won't soon forget it. And yes, I did fall asleep.



About Her (Grace, 7): Chris has often referred to our third dame as a puppy. It's a remarkably good comparison. Grace is eager, loses focus easily and can cause quite a bit of mess and commotion for someone her size. She is also extremely lovable and has no trouble making friends. She has great ideas, good handwriting and is an impressive artist. She frustrates Miss Lita, her piano teacher, because she insists on playing by ear rather than reading the notes. She frustrates her mama because she cannot stay on task. Still, Grace has a huge heart. For all of her rough and tumble exterior, she is tender with the ones she loves. Right now, I am probably number one on that list or maybe a close second to Ella. I consider it a huge privilege and it truly helps me to see past some of the bad behavior I have to deal with daily. Tonight, I caught Grace eating butter straight off the stick. Her namesake, my grandma, Margaret Grace Schneider, once ate a whole stick. YUCK! There's no doubt about it, our Maggie G is a chip off many great blocks.

About Her (Sophie, 5): Everyone loves Sophie. Is it the blonde hair? I love watching people's reactions to her because she is literally enchanting. My own experience of Sophie these days is a bit different. It involves much screeching and resisting "the plan" or, Mommy's idea of what should be done. In a move uncharacteristic of us, we are considering stopping her piano lessons for a year or until she decides she wants to play because Sophie's will is truly strong. Even though Sophie is technically not our youngest, she feels like the baby to me. Her teacher's comment on her report card this fall was that she liked to climb on her lap and fall asleep during show and tell. No surprise there.  Sophie is not planning on leaving home ever.  Good thing we have a king-size bed.

About Her (Ella, 3): Ella will be four soon. Say it isn't so! You know, if her sisters were in school, Ella and I would be the best buddies around, spending lots of quality time together. As it is, I always seem to postpone time with Ella to "do school" with the others. I suppose there's just more pressure in that direction. I hope I don't look back with regret but more Ella time is one of my resolutions for 2012.

The word I most associate with Ella is "delightful". She is. She is a cuddler and a helper and a smart little conversationalist. She amazes me. She wants a dog. Named Chaucer. She also wants to marry Justin Bieber. She has a fascination with kissing on the lips. Not sure why.

I'm pretty sure that when God was giving out butts, Ella was busy somewhere else because she can't keep her pants up unless they are teeny weeny. And another thing--I really love Ella's name. It is beautiful and perfect and it fits her. I think if we have another girl, we may just name her Ella too.

And last but not least...

About Me: At 41, I am still learning things about myself that I think I probably should have noticed a long time ago. Obviously, I am not as quick a learner as I'd like to believe. I am definitely the absent-minded professor with my thoughts on everything but the situation at hand which is why my kids sometimes have to call my name three times before I realize they're in the room. I deal much better with life in general when I have structure. Clearly, the life of a stay at home mom is less structured than say, the life of a full time teacher. I struggle with both staying at home and home schooling for that reason more than any other.
I realized recently that I may have misidentified my love language. I always thought it was quality time but I'm pretty sure it's actually words of affirmation. I don't do very well when I assume things about how people think and feel about me. I do better when it's spelled out clearly, preferably in large letters on a scoreboard (that was for Chris :)

I hope you've enjoyed our little post-semester review. I know I did.

PS

Chris has brought back this form of communication recently.  I think I'm supposed to be the moose.

The Rest of the Story

So, for several years now, perhaps the whole time we've lived in Kingwood, we have bought our Christmas tree from Tinsel Time Tree Farm.  It's both a tradition and a ritual for us.  We pack a picnic and plan to spend serious quality time at the farm, riding on the sleigh/ hay ride, swinging on the rope, enjoying the open fire if it's chilly enough and wandering around in search of the year's "winner".
Choosing our tree this way reminds me of the book The Three Trees where each tree had a dream and each played an important part in Jesus' story.  It may sound silly, but I know that the tree we pick each year is the luckiest tree on the lot.  I would say our house is joy-filled in general but at Christmas time, it's doubled, maybe tripled.  Any tree would want to be a part of that.
I think I enjoyed this year's outing more than most simply because it was a break in an especially busy period for us.  I soaked in the stress-free time with the whole family.  And I laughed harder than I have in awhile.  It was fun.  Disaster threatened when we had to choose between two trees and Sophie's got the thumbs down.  She decided she was NOT coming home with us.  I'm not sure what changed her mind but we managed to take a pretty cute family photo despite her disappointment.

Photo explosion starting HERE:

 sisters fireside

 the rope swing was a hit as always

 gettin' by with a little help from her sis'

 sleigh ride

 I'm Three!

(Not for long...)

 Budding photographer

 Sophie's tree

Sophie when she realizes her tree isn't "the winner"

 Dog pulling tree

I thought this was cool

 recovering

 Grace lends a hand

 Mia called a quick time out from sawing to get a picture with her find

I think she may have picked last year's tree too

 Daddy takes over and the tree comes tumbling down

 Portraits

Maggie G

 They wanted a room mate picture

Too cute

 Madeleine Noel

 Chris takes a turn

He has my vote for America's Top Model :)

 Sophie's too

 Tree Hugger

 Ella wins for biggest grin

Giving him the Heisman

but in a good way

 Sophie recovered enough to say, "Merry Christmas every one!"

How many more pictures like this will we take?  The Odyssey is a very old friend (very....old)

See you back here next time!