The Incarnation of Christ, celebrated in the liturgical season of Christmastide, takes on a richer significance for me with each passing year. The story of the Nativity is fuller, but undeniably more strange. It loses the saccharine quality of greeting cards and becomes complicated. Christmas becomes more intricately connected to Holy Week and I’m reminded that the miracle of the Incarnation … [Read more...]
Our 12 Days of Christmas!
Contrary to what retailers might have you believe, the 12 Days of Christmas are not the 12 days that precede Christmas. They actually begin on Christmas Day, lasting until the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th. This season, also known as Christmastide, is traditionally when the holiday celebrating starts, but you'd never know it from all the Christmas trees already stripped bare and left by the … [Read more...]
Christmas Tree Joy: A Photo Post
It's been quiet at Carrots this week, friends. I got hit by another bout of serious morning sickness and have been out of commission for a couple of days. Thank heavens for my mom and my in-laws who took care of the kids almost all day yesterday so that I could rest and recover from some fun pregnancy vomiting. I spent the whole day in bed with ginger ale and Harry Potter audiobooks. Anyhow, … [Read more...]
Sleepers, Wake! An Advent Music Guide and Playlist
After explaining how we fast from Christmas music during Advent (and then turn up the jams during the Twelve Days of Christmas until Epiphany!), I get a variety of reactions including “Are you insane?” Well, probably. And “so, what DO you listen to during Advent?” To be honest I am just now discovering “Advent music” instead of just abstaining from Christmas music and I have completely fallen in … [Read more...]
Little HolyDays: The Feast of St. Nicholas
Welcome to our first Little HolyDays link up and Happy New Year! No, I haven’t gotten the months confused, it’s the beginning of a new liturgical year. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Let’s hope you were more organized than I and didn’t spend part of your Sunday scrambling around looking for your Advent wreath (don’t worry! I found it!). Anyhow, for our very first Little HolyDays … [Read more...]
Holy Time: Observing Advent Instead of Fighting Santa
Every year I hear folks bemoaning the secularization of Christmas and how commercialism has overtaken what used to be a Christian holiday. I read news stories about which retail stores are promoting “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and which groups and organizations are boycotting those stores for choosing to greet their customers in one way or another. People label it the “war on … [Read more...]
On the Last Day of Christmas…
(Lucy's Christmas shoes and special Christmas china from Daniel's mom) We are: Listening to Christmas Music Drinking Hot Chocolate (miraculously, Benjamin hasn't spilled it yet) And, by Benjamin's request, watching the Nutcracker This little Christmas elf is enjoying the last day of Christmastide. I think this little man is going to miss the Christmas season. Or perhaps I … [Read more...]
Ero Cras
Emmanuel Rex Oriens Clavis Radix Adonai Sapientia ERO CRAS: I will be there tomorrow. I love a good old timey Latin Advent acrostic! We are having a relaxing Christmas Eve day before going to my folks house for Christmas Eve dinner. Our sweet boy has been dying to put the ornaments on the tree for weeks and will be so excited for the chance to decorate it tonight. … [Read more...]
