Happy Thanksgiving

This year I am grateful for the additions to our family, my teenage brother and sister-in-law, Manuel and Milagro, Irina, an 18-year-old family friend who came to live with us, and my father who is on his way up from Long Island. The kitchen is merry with girls cooking our traditional Thanksgiving feast, the house is spotless and fragrant, and our spirits are high. We are taking out the good china, and linen, putting logs in the fireplace, and preparing for a fun weekend. Life is good.
I don't know what the future holds, there are rumblings on the horizon which threaten to make this year one which we will look back upon fondly. Maybe things won't be so prosperous next year, maybe some family members will be missing or in poor health.
So, its especially important to count our blessings and give thanks to Almighty God for those who surround us, our prosperity, and for our safe, free nation.

Christina was St Elizabeth of Hungary for All Hallow's Eve

She is always sympathetic to the needs of others, and likes to help prepare meals, so I thought St Elizabeth, who is remembered for her charity to the poor of Hungary (the hungry of Hungary) was a good choice of saints. We celebrated, as always with the Friars of the Immaculate at their beautiful Friary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Griswold, CT.
After the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, we had a potluck meal, saint guessing games, games of chance with Biblical themes, and a spectacular show of skateboard jumps from Fra Gabriel, who will heretofore be known as the "Flying Friar". He jumped a bucket of flames to the delight of the dozens of children assembled in their costumes on that frosty evening.
Holiness and happiness were in the air as we remembered that we are proceeding towards the Church Suffering and then towards being part of the Church Triumphant.

My favorite stamps

Sorry to my friends who didn't receive Christmas cards yet from me, yet. As I said in my article this month in Canticle magazine, Christmas should be celebrated for the entire season. Today is the feast of Pope St Sylvester.
I have been dealing with a bad sore throat for over a week, and no end in sight since it was diagnosed as 'viral'. I am trying to bravely swallow my home remedies of ginger tea with honey and lemon while offering it up for a holier New Year for America.
Here's a suggestion to help it be a holy new year.
Send these beautiful new stamps of Blessed Mother Teresa and make her stamp the biggest hit since the lovely Madonna and Child Christmas stamps.

Reasons to give thanks at my house

My parents and my brother's family made the four hour trip over the river and through the woods to my new home in Connecticut for Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful time by the fireplace and exploring my new neighborhood.
We discovered this adorable family of burros down the road from my house, which fascinated Christina so much, when we had to leave, she told them she was going home. We'll have to revisit them, they'll make our telling of the Christmas Story come alive.

We ate delicious strawberry, coconut custard and apple pies fresh from local bakers and visited Josie's General Store in Canterbury. After dinner, we played the piano and the kids had fun without TV, just being silly and playing with the three Labs. It was an old fashioned Thanksgiving family meal.

My brother took it upon himself to organize a clean up crew for my hopelessly unpacked garage, and now we can actually get the van in the garage! No more scraping ice off in the driveway or waiting for visibility to be able to leave for school! Not to mention how scary it was to go and get things we needed from the van at night!
God bless everyone who pitched in and for my husband and Dad who fixed my collapsed kitchen cabinet shelves. Little by little we are feeling comfortable in our new home. Now, if we could only get rid of ALL the mice. . .
good thing we have our faithful cat Fritzi on patrol.

During this beautiful weekend, we enjoyed the restful sights and sounds of the farms, stream and woods around my new neighborhood, including this winter sunset. We met some of my new neighbors, our parish priest, and even a Bobcat who loped accross the road with awesome cat like agility and speed. Nature is ever present in the last green valley on the East Coast.

So, between family time, moving into my home a bit more, watching the kids play, enought time to attend daily Mass, family and nature, it was a perfect weekend.

And I am thankful to God for it all.

All Hallows Eve at the Friary

Here's the schedule of events at the All Saints Day Celebration at the Friary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Griswold, CT

(All Hallow's Eve, Friday October 31st)

6:00 Holy Mass
7:00 - 9:00 Duda's game booth
7:30 Costume judging
9:00 Outdoor activities with the friars

Please keep in mind that Mass typically goes past 7:00 and we'll adapt to that so we shouldn't feel compelled to rush out of Mass without Thanksgiving.

Food - finger foods, chips, cheese & crackers, veggies & dip, hors d'oeuvres, desserts. Please use disposable containers and utensils as we're trying to minimize clean-up. If anyone's willing to sign up for the clean-up crew, please let me know.
Also, please bring candy & a dozen small powdered donuts for the game booth.

This year the costume judging will be a little different. The actual judging will be for children 8 & older although that is flexible, the younger children (7 & under) will be gathered around the stage. Each child will say his/her saint name and we'll all sing the litany. Again, if any child from the older group (8 & up) does not want to participate in the judging, then he/she can stay with the younger group.

To keep your focus on Holy Week

Go over and read the inspiring posts at the Catholic Carnival at Mary's Aggies.

A Quiet New Year's Eve at Home

Since Christina is still recovering from pnemonia, we celebrated the New Year quietly at home, without guests.

That's not to say we didn't have fun, Isabella and Christina threw confetti, and we saved our sparkling cider toast, and New Year's Eve mice for midnight.

Happy New Year everyone!

HT Faith and Family magazine for recipe for "Christmas Eve Mice" which we re-named 'New Year's Eve' mice.

Flying turkey surprise

Have you seen the ">Turkey commercial that folks are circulating this Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Dinner promised to be somewhat quiet, just my three girls and us over at Mom and Dad's house. Francisco asked to carve the turkey, which my father gladly surrendered, as he hates that job, and the fun began. The large turkey was precariously positioned on the counter, and when Francisco applied the right amount of pressure, the tray flipped the 20 pound bird off the counter for it's last flight, accross the kitchen!

The carver adroitly rescued the turkey from the waiting hounds, and offered that he had already carved off the best parts anyway. . .So, we ate what was already carved, and, well, no one was enthusiastic about the turkey leftovers this year.

Here, doggy. . .