We started our preparations early this week, adhering to that time-honored tradition of making hand turkeys.
Yes, hand turkeys.
Everyone gets into the spirit of it all...
Including my oldest... God bless him! (who made the lovely "Quetzalcwaddle" seen above)
And, of course, everyone helped out on the actual day, chopping, cleaning, and cooking. The kids wound up making everything, from the stuffing and mashed potatoes to the rolls and desserts! My job was mainly supervisory, which is just fine with me -- I love being in the kitchen with all of them, and I love seeing them getting so excited about cooking!
[I was trying to load more pictures of the kids cooking, but I can NOT get blogger to upload them, for some reason! Grrrr.]
The new tradition for us this year was all thanks to my dear friend P, who invited us to take part in something she and her daughter did last year -- walk to Mass. We live between 3-4 miles from our church (I've never actually checked), so we knew we could make it if we gave ourselves an hour.
It was COLD (somewhere in the 20s) when we started out in the morning.
Our daughters...
My husband said the only thing I was missing was the shopping cart.
I didn't care... I was warm, warm, warm!
I didn't care... I was warm, warm, warm!
What struck me most as we were walking was that, until this past century, this was the way most people went to Mass -- leaving exceptionally early and traveling long distances to make it there. While I can't say our walk was a "hardship," it did require extra thought, extra planning, and effort on our part to make it there. It felt good to give up a little something -- extra sleep, the comfort of a warm car -- to spend time with Jesus. (Now, before I start sounding like I'm patting myself on the back, do you see me making sacrifices to spend time with Him daily? No, sadly you do not...)
I was further struck by something I discovered a few weeks back. P and I went on a mom's retreat to the mountains of NC, and I was in charge of finding out the Mass times for the churches in the area.
Notice my two mistakes: I assumed churchES, and Mass timeS.
Instead, I found ONE church that was in the area (meaning within a 30-40 min radius) that had ONE Mass time for the ENTIRE.WEEK.
Now, living down here in SC, I am used to there being only one Catholic Church in the area.
What I did not realize, however, was the LUXURY we were being given here in our town. We have daily Mass, twice weekly confession times, Adoration every Friday, and I -- having a key to the church -- have access to the Blessed Sacrament day or night.
WHAT am I doing WASTING that??? I can drop in any day, and yet I'm too busy? Am I insane?
So that was our day... a day to thank God, to put forth a little effort to be with Him, to spend time with my beloved family, and to rest.
May God bless you all!
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