Guest blog by Mxyl: Merry Christmas from Zoom Extended Edition

This year our grandparents came over to visit us!  Pa, while opening his present, handled it as if it was a bomb (or at least an unidentified object of some type) and by the time it was just about open he had almost convinced all of us that there were three [angry] ferrets inside who were doing everything they could to get out.  It later turned out to be six mugs with designs of fighter planes on them.

We greatly enjoyed the presents and presence of one another.  Oh, yes--I can't do a blog post about this Christmas without noting the Christmas tree.  Last year, it was so big we had trouble finding enough room in the house to put the angel on top!  This year, it was relatively tiny.  The result was that we had a lot of trouble finding enough room
on the tree to put all the ornaments, let alone the presents.

 Baby Jesus's manger was overflowing with straw (literally!), Our other grandmother came over to run a few errands and finish up her Christmas shopping, and we played both video games, outside games, and more.

Just today, we opened the stuff our Aunt Toni gave us.

Choclo & Oob got probably the most difficult-to-build castle in the world (just trust me on this one),

Leena got glowing gloves that glowed different colors (red, green, blue and all three--that is SO cool),

Zorg got a create-and-eat gummy bug set (no, I am not making this up),

Klenda got a new art kit (a calligraphy set, in fact!)

and I got an official Legend of Zelda t-shirt!

Thanks, Aunt Toni!  And a happy new year to all!

Merry Christmas from Zoom!

Scout Party!

Last night was the Boy Scout Christmas party.  I'm not sure how that turned into a costume party, but it did!

I think one scout decided to come as Santa and Mxyl thought of coming as an elf.  Link, the Legend of Zelda elf, to be specific.

From there on it snowballed.  Zorg wanted to be the nightmare before Christmas (or "Oops!  Wrong holiday!").  Leena wanted to be a Christmas tree (although some of her tinsel fell off before I took the picture), and Klenda went as a department store elf.  Her name tag reads: Hello!  My name is Elf Rudolf.

And a very good time was had by all!

FOOTNOTE BY MXYL: I made a photoshop of myself earlier.  It reads, "Legend of Zenda", a pun on Princess Klenda (Hey, our dad is a grand emperor, so "Princess" Klenda really does work!) and has nothing whatsoever to do with The Prisoner of Zenda.

 

O Antiphons

Each December 17th, the Church kicks into high "getting ready for Christmas" gear.  This is marked by two momentous events: 1 we put up our Christmas tree, and 2 the O antiphons.

What's an antiphon, anyway?  An antiphon is a response to a psalm or a scripture canticle.  The O antiphons are responses to the Canticle of Mary, also known as the Magnificat.  The Church sings this every evening, and there are always antiphons said before and after we sing it, but the O antiphons are particularly striking in their beauty and significance.

The antiphon for the 17th, for example is:O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly.  Come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Each of the antiphons is a scripture based title for Jesus. There's even a cool "Easter egg" thing: If you take the first letter of each antiphon (not counting the O!) they spell out, "Tomorrow, I come" (in Latin, of course, since they were originally written in Latin!).


Every year, we each randomly pick an antiphon to illustrate on large paper banners.  We draw or paint them secretly, and then post them in the stairwell on the appropriate day.

The top picture shows the first three days.  Star did "O Wisdom," Leena did  the next day "O Lord and Ruler of the House of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai gave him your law.  Come, and with outstretched arm redeem us."

Zorg did "O Root of Jesse..."  

I did " O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no man closes; you close and no man opens.  Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

This is my banner.  In the key hole you may be able to see (from the top down) Adam and Eve, Abel's death,  the Tower of Babel, hatred, money, sadness, the Golden Calf, Fear, slavery, death, human sacrifice, starvation, age, weapons of war, natural disasters, and, at the very bottom, people languishing in chains in the dark.


That was yesterday's antiphon, today's is "O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

Klenda did this one, but it's not on the wall yet!

Of Socks and Such

It is a well known fact that socks tend to go missing in my house.  I always thought the drier ate them, but now I need another theory.

I have a dozen Christmas stockings.  I have never put any of them into the drier, yet each Christmas I find fewer stockings.

This year I could only find 7 and I needed 9.  What to do?  The plain ones were on sale at Target for $4, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money.  I have yards of fleece stockpiled in my sewing cache, how hard could it be to make them?

In a shocking development, they turned out to be as easy as I thought they'd be!

I just folded the fabric to make 4 layers, cut out a stocking type shape, and sewed around the outside.

I wasn't sure how to cuff them (or was too lazy!) so I folded down the tops and fringed them.  A little fabric paint and:  Voila!  Stockings!

It would have been nice to trim the seams to get the curves to lie smooth, and I may get around to that... eventually.  But they bulge out when stuffed anyway, so it doesn't show in use!

Crazy Advent

One of the joys of using Playmobil Nativity people is that they are of the right size to interact with other toys.  The creature hiding behind the stable keeps showing up in our nativity...

This week my Advent has kind of felt like there was a giant alien bug hiding behind all the Christmas preparations.

Last week I went in for some minor dental work and got walloped with "the tooth from heck" as my dentist so delicately put it.  By the end of that encounter I had laser gum surgery, a shaved bone, and air in my cheek (not in my mouth, inside my cheek). 

I was an airhead for a few days, but I'm feeling muuuuch better now.  Except that today I had to go back in with a raging gum infection.  I'm glad I live in the time of antibiotics.

Back to last Friday: I was hardly off the pain killers when I got the news that Fr. Pinto had died.  Later that day, my father-in-law went into the hospital with a fever they couldn't control.  The fever broke today, thanks be to God, but prayers for his recovery would be appreciated.

What to make of all this in Advent? 

A parish near me uses blue for Advent instead of purple and pink.  Klenda asked the priest on Gaudete Sunday, why no pink?  He told her that the pink was there to offset the penitential purple, but that Advent wasn't really a penitential time, so they just use blue and therefore don't need the pink..

That's wrong, of course.  The Church has spoken on that one: we use purple because it's a penitential season.  Pink represents joy.  So, he's right about something very basic to the spiritual life: when you skip the penance, you lose the joy.

What does that have to do with my aching gums and battered heart?  Two things.  The first was that when I went in to get that minor dental work done, I was thinking of Annabelle's sister Julie. 

Annabelle comments pretty frequently on my blog, and she happened to mention that she was having a tough Advent because her sister was diagnosed with cancer.   I looked her up on Caring Bridge, and saw that Julie has a cancer that is difficult if not impossible to cure, and she has kids my kids age and younger - her youngest is 2. 

Anyway, I thought I'd offer up any pain or discomfort from having my loose crown fixed for Julie.  Little did I know!  But it's awfully little compared to what she's going through, and it's a gift I can give to the Christ Child.  Essentially, it's a suffering (a penance, if you will) that I chose willingly, if occasionally whinily!

The second thing: What about all this extra suffering?  I didn't choose to suffer my friend's death, or my dear father-in-law's illness.  Why these unlooked for, unchosen "penances" in Advent? 

There is a saying that sorrow carves in your heart the space that joy will fill. 

Put another way, you can't have a resurrection without a death.

This has been a pain that shocked me out of my own busy preparations.  I was at the pharmacy today, waiting for my new antibiotic, and I really looked at the people around me.  It seems so often, I am so busy, I don't really notice other people, especially people in pain.  That's what I saw: people in pain, people who could use a kind word, the suffering Jesus.

These sorrowful Advent experiences have opened my heart to others, and therefore to Christ, in a way I don't think I've ever been, and I'm grateful for that. 

RIP Fr. Pinto

Yesterday Angel called with the shocking news that my dear friend, Fr. Pinto, had been killed in a car accident in India.

Please pray for the repose of his soul, and for his family, as well as for all the people whose lives he touched.  For myself, all I can say is that my life is so much better for having known him.  He brought me closer to God, and may the Lord he loved so well, richly reward him.

He taught me that nothing is lost in God, and to trust, always trust in God's love for us, even, perhaps especially, in the face of great suffering..

Fun at the Botannical Gardens

 I thought this year's display was the best ever!

The theme was "animal houses" and they had an amazing variety.

 This was my favorite: an Opposum Opartment!

Each house was a miniature marvel, carefully constructed of twigs, acorn caps and bark.

 We also enjoyed the rest of their displays, especially their enormous glassed-in two tiered jungle.

I think the best might have been seeing the banana trees with actual bananas and the cocoa tree with real cocoa pods.  Oooh!  We saw a kumquat tree with fruit, also!

They also have a kids exploration room where you can smell all sorts of things that come from plants.  These range from the commonplace cinnamon sticks, to the exotic pampas grass.

It's all done in this amazing giant metal garden where the "flowers" contain all the different things to smell.  Very cool!

Yet More Gingerbread

 There's nothing like gingerbread and 6 bowls of candy to bring out the artist in any kid!

In this case, we sweetened the deal by making a giant batch of royal icing, then separating it into 6 bags with different colors.

This was super easy: we just snipped the corners of the bags and let the kids have at it.  We used freezer strength quart bags to prevent the possibility of blow outs.



We ended up with a wide array of artistic styles, all of which tasted delicious!

Reasons for Photoshop

One reason I like the Botannical Gardens is that it's a great place to take Festive Family Fotos Photos.

It's a great theory, and sometimes it even works!  This year however...

Photo 1: Light isn't good, Mxyl appears to be blocking some unseen thing aimed at his ear.

 Photo 2: Zorg looks desperately unhappy, Mxyl doesn't look happy and Klenda looks a little too happy.  Light still isn't right.

 Photo 3: Mxyl still too serious, Zorg looks pained, I feel pained.
I forget about the light because we are obviously having other issues.

 Photo 4: Leena moved, Zorg makes an attempt at sleeping, Oob hides.  I have a creeping sensation that this is not going to work out as planned.

 Photo 5: The Zoomlians, perhaps sense my mood! Klenda is grimacing, Leena is horrified, and Oob attempts to escape.  Mxyl looks great, though, and Choclo is smiling like a champ!  Maybe I should change tactics...

 Photo 6: I take a picture of "only the kids who want to smile."  It comes out like this...  

 Photo 7: Fine!  I try a picture of "only those kids who don't want to smile."  It comes out like this.

Which is enough to entice Oob back since he doesn't want to smile either, which looks like this.

At this point we are actually 16 photos in (I spared you, really I did!) and I realize we are just not going to get a Christmas photo of glowing happy, respectabiggle children this trip and I decide to be all right with that.

There's always Photoshop.