It's Chri---- Wait!

It's Advent! Which has become one of my favorite seasons.  Even if half the world ignores it.  Even though "wait" is one of the most frustrating responses to my prayers.  Even when I rush through it and forget all sorts of things, or when my plans downshift suddenly and disappear.  There's something... comforting about this kind of hopeful waiting.  All the church-y songs have such a great wellspring of hope in them...


 

This will be our first Christmas without my brother Steve.  Which seems unbelievable, really.  It's amazing how much I miss him, when we didn't *see* each other regularly... but we did talk often.  And he loved Christmas.  A few weeks ago, Kaden asked us, "Remember when Uncle Steve drove his motorcycle to see us for Christmas? (pause as we say yes, and he gets a faraway look in his eyes)   That was nice."   It was, buddy, it really really was.  And the memories are nice, too.

Today I found out a friend of mine lost her younger brother.  He died unexpectedly due to heart failure...  at 34. I didn't know him well, per se, but I knew he was one of the good guys.  My heart goes out to their family... and another person goes on our prayer list.  It's really odd to have so many friends who have lost brothers- at different ages (late 20s to early 60s) and in different circumstances (most accidents or undiagnosed health issues)... none of them were expected.  Not a club I imagined joining.

Today (yesterday, actually 11/30) started the St. Andrew Christmas Novena.  In the past, I've never been big on novena prayers.  But I just finished one for our new-to-us parish namesake, St. Catherine Laboure, and I've missed it the last few days.  So when I heard about this one (again), I thought- this is the perfect one to do for all the brothers who've passed.  (St. Andrew being the brother to St. Peter).  Although, honestly, I'm not aiming for saying the short prayer 15x a day, but rather 3x (at meals) (actually, that might be 5x daily, given my pregnancy habits).  If you have any intentions you'd like me to remember, just send them along (email, fb message, comment below- however :).

For Steve, Rick, Chris, Andy, Vince, Jim S. and Henry...

THANKSGIVING! THAT'S WHAT HOLIDAY IT IS.

Quick Takes Today:

1)  The next holiday is Thanksgiving.  I know this for a fact, despite the fact that none of the stores have ANY decent selection of Turkey or Scarecrow bulletin boards.  That I need for the school party Monday.

2)  I also know this, despite the fact that the party is called a FALL party, and not a holiday/Thanksgiving party.  What was that thing Seinfeld had? Festivus?  Why don't we just introduce the 5 year olds to that?

3)  I'm actually pleased that I found out about the missing turkeys today, instead of Sunday night.  This is my version of planning ahead.  I get bonus points for spending umpteen hours on Pinterest 'researching' fall crafts.  And then another hour looking up fall GAMES after I realized that's what I signed up for.  And then another 30 minutes tonight reviewing BOTH crafts and games, when I realized that no one else had signed up for the craft slot.

4) Signup Genius is awesome.  Except when it isn't.  That's pretty much my philosophy on all technology.

5) When the weatherfolk say there's ARCTIC anything in the forecast, it makes me dream of a sandy white beach Christmas.  Hey, maybe that's where all the turkeys and scarecrows are?!

What Holiday is this, again?

I had to laugh out loud when I noticed my last blog post was about Halloween.  Mainly because we seemed to burn out on the holiday fairly early this year.  Is it me, or does it seem like the "getting ready for the holiday" starts sooooooooooooo early, that by the time the actual day/fun times roll around, everyone is like "whew, that's over."

And Thanksgiving is so late this year!  It feels like that.  Anyway, we are studiously ignoring Christmas songs, ads, and decorations... trying to focus on Thanksgiving crafts and games and fun.   I did, however, start "the list" - we usually do *some* crafting for gifts, but I've been hibernating more than usual this year.  So who knows. Maybe we'll get it done, or maybe we'll cut way back again.  I'm not sure we even sent out Christmas cards last year!!  (Anyone remember?)   We'll see.

And a few posts ago, I asked for opinions about Fall Crafts (for Kaden's class party at school)... only to realize this week that I actually am doing GAMES.  Whoops.  So, another reason to spend a few hours on Pinterest.  (Though it is confusing, looking for Turkey games one minute and easy crafts another, lol).  So far, we've come up with Fall Bingo (which I'll probably adapt to include some of their sight words or just letters, because I'm such a nerd)... and pumpkin bowling... and a cooperative version of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' - where every kid gets a part of the scarecrow to pin, but we'll still blindfold them before sending them up!  

And!  I realize I need to take more pictures.  Though the new tech toy in the house is an iPad- from work, and I'm trying verra hard to keep it work orientated.   But I have a learning curve (a digital storytelling project is due soon, which app will work? ack!)... and Plants vs. Zombies was too tempting. At least for this week!

So, what holiday are YOU prepping for - or enjoying- right now??

Halloween, Potatoes, and Parenting

Halloween is over! Just like that, it's November.  But there's still some decorations up, and some conversations going on... like this one:   Give Them Potatoes.    It's an interesting one (thanks to my nephew for originally posting on FB), talking about different ways Christians can think/act about Halloween.

I was raised Catholic, in public school, back in the day when there *were* Halloween parties and costume parades and very little PC about parties.  (And since it was public school, I don't remember any of the 'dress-up-as-saints' parties either!)  The whole Christians-shouldn't-celebrate-evil thing?  It never came up.  Sometimes, with this sort of stuff, I think Catholics are a bit more... tolerant?  practical?  In the sense that we take death and the existence of evil in stride:  sure, it's there, but nothing's more powerful than God.   So we just leave it up to God.  Now, I'm sure other people have other interpretations, and I actually didn't want to re-hash the Halloween thing...

Because what struck me the most about the debate of whether to let kids trick-or-treat, or how much to expose them to _____ (death/ghosts/zombies/evil/etc/etc/etc).... is that it's a bit like a lot of other parent debates.  How do we protect them without over-protecting them?  How do we expose them to the big world without overwhelming them?   How do we teach them to handle disappointment, or death, or bullying, or scary things... if they never experience it in some way? In other words, how do we raise our kids to be self-sufficient within their own capabilities and limits?

I know, I know... this is nothing new.  The age old parenting issue, and maybe a bit of our own issues with life in general.  Pope John XXIII once said that he thought the great challenge of life was not grabbing hold, but letting go.  (Richard Rohr also has some interesting takes on this, with the main spiritual goal of the first half of life being to learn how great we are by building our talents and experiencing success, and the main goal of the second half of life is learning how to fail and let go.)

And someone- forgive me for not remembering who- once said that she thought God gives people children so they can raise the kids to learn about and love God... and then she had kids and realized that God gives people children so the parents can learn about how to love God!   All this is swimming around in my head, and my heart (okay, my uterus too)...

There's no answers today- these sorts of questions are the stuff I think about most weeks...  I do think it's all connected, though.  There's a third way, in between ignoring Halloween and celebrating evil, in between sheltering our kids or abandoning them to the world, in between doing what everyone does and doing nothing everyone does.  More than one "third way", I think, because while I think the Golden Rule applies to everyone, a lot of the specific 'how' it gets done would be dependent on the family's quirks and individuality.

Confusing enough for you?   Let me know if you have it figured out, I'm open to hints... or more conversations :)