Christmas Day...

Christmas Day was so nice!  The children opened their stockings before Liturgy, we had church and coffee hour, and then spent the rest of the day making merry by spending time together, eating delicious things, and opening presents.  Our night ended with Vespers in our pretty little church and a long, hot bath for mama (with a special new Christmas book, A Merry Christmas:  And Other Christmas Stories).  It really was a perfect day! 

Metropolitan Tikhon's Nativity Message...

Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

To the honorable Clergy, Venerable Monastics, and Pious Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America,

My Beloved Brethren and Blessed Children in the Lord,

I greet all of you with the joy of the most glorious Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ!  As Saint Leo the Great reminds us in his sermon on the Nativity, “in adoring the birth of our Savior, we find that we are celebrating the commencement of our own lives, for the birth of Christ is the source of life for the Christian people, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the Body.”

Indeed, we rejoice and celebrate on this great day.  Yet we must never fail to recall those for whom the earthly sojourn seems to be anything but joyful—the lost and searching and seeking, the lonely and forgotten, the sick and imprisoned and persecuted, the hungry and thirsty, and those who, like the Christ Child, “have no where to lay their heads.”  If the birth of Christ is the commencement and source of our lives, then it is not only our duty, but our blessed honor, to share the light of the newborn Christ with those who sit “in the valley of the shadow of death,” thereby revealing the love God so richly and unconditionally pours out on all who would accept it.

Our Lord proclaimed good news to the poor, gave sight to the blind, and healed every manner of infirmity.  How well we know the spiritual poverty and blindness and infirmity that fills our world today.  And how crucial it is to be continuously reminded that “with God, all things are possible,” (Mt 19:26) precisely because “God is with us” (Mt 1:23) and calls us to become “partakers in His divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)  Even our most seemingly insignificant expressions of love and compassion for “the least of the brethren” (Mt 25:40) make the impossible, possible and the mundane as miraculous as the divine birth we celebrate today.

The angelic hosts called out to the simple shepherds: “Tarry not in the field, O ye that shepherd the nurslings of the flocks!  Cry aloud and sing praises, that Christ the Lord hath been born in Bethlehem!”  Let us not tarry in singing praises to our incarnate Lord, not only with our voices, but also with our unconditional acts of love and kindness and compassion.  Such is the fruit of the good news proclaimed over two thousand years ago.  And such is the very heart of our common ministry to incarnate Him in our hearts and our lives, and in the hearts and lives of those whom He continually prepares to encounter Him.

Please be assured of my prayers for all of you, that Our Lord will not only equip us in our common ministry as His Body, but bring our efforts to fruition.  May the divine blessing that He so freely brings into the world remain with all of us now and throughout the new year to come!

With love in the New-Born Christ,

+ Tikhon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

Christ is Born!!

Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, 

has shone to the world the light of wisdom! 

For by it, those who worshiped the stars 

were taught by a star to adore Thee, the Sun of Righteousness 

and to know Thee, the Orient from on high. 

O Lord, glory to Thee!

Joyeux Noel...

A White (and Green) Christmas Eve...

 

 There may not be any snow on the ground, but there are sweetly scented white tulips on the dining room table and paperwhites blooming in the playroom! 

O Christmas Tree...

 

 

Christmas Feasting...

After Liturgy Nibbles

 Ham Sandwiches on Tiny Rolls

Vegetable Platter with Bacon Ranch Dip

Sausage, Cheese, and Crackers

Clementines

Dinner

Roasted Chicken

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffing

Gravy

Cranberry Sauce

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole Christmas Cauliflower

Creamed Onions

Christmas Bread and Butter 

Desserts

Christmas Cookies 

Christmas Chocolate

Our Christmas Books...

Prepare O Bethlehem

Christmas Trolls

The Story of Holly and Ivy

Angelina's Christmas

Apple Tree Christmas

An Orange for Frankie

The Night Before Christmas

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

We Three Kings

Christmas Tapestry

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree

 The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

Great Joy

The Little Drummer Boy

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Snowman

Something for Christmas

Take Joy

Celebrating the Twelve Day of Christmas

The Lion in the Box

Star Mother's Youngest Child

A Child's Christmas in Wales

No Holly for Miss Quinn

Christmas with Anne

Christmas with Victoria

Christmas in Fairacre

Gingerbread Houses...

We've been decorating gingerbread houses every December for several years now and always have a lot of fun (and make a huge mess!).  The children decorated a tiny gingerbread village using all of the candy and icing that came in the box. I was inspired by Barn Raising's birdseed gingerbread house and so I tried to recreate it myself.  My house was already put together, so it was easy to spread peanut butter all over the house and add a colorful birdseed mix to the roof and thinly sliced dried apricot and pineapple to the walls.  I nestled it in our birdbath outside of the dining room window and the blue jays have  been loving it!  Hopefully they'll let their woodland friends know and it will get eaten up soon. I want to use more color (cranberries!) next year...  Here's to new traditions!

Our Christmas Library Bag...

Christmas Day in the Morning*

The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll

The Little Match Girl

Home for Christmas

Christmas in the Country*

The Christmas Wish

Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?

A City Christmas Tree

B is for Bethlehem

A Child is Born

A Christmas Memory*

A Christmas Tree for Pyn*

Lighthouse Christmas*

Christmas in Noisy Village

Book with an * are ones that we particularly enjoyed!

The 2015 Orthodox Christian Calendar...

Look at the amazing calendar Xenia Kathryn created!  It includes 13 wonderful illustrations that will make jotting down your family's activities truly pleasant!  Each calendar is only $17 and the proceeds from calendar sales will go to the Building Fund of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Oregon.

Here are some of the details:

The calendar features 13 copyrighted watercolor and/or pen and ink illustrations, running from January 2015 through January 2016. Included are the twelve major feast days, Great Lent and other important dates in the ecclesiastical year, according to the New Calendar (Gregorian). It is printed on medium weight cardstock, and is ready to hang on your wall.

This wall calendar measures: 7.5”(h) x 10” (w) folded.
Unfolded, as presented on your wall, it will measure 15”(h) x 10” (w) 
To order your own Orthodox Christian Calendar, please visit Xenia Kathryn's Etsy shop, Grover Eats Beans.

Yarn Along: Fragrant Honey...

While we were on our little week-long adventure last week, my sister and I took turns browsing in a local-to-our-parents yarn shop.  They had loads of Madeline Tosh and Kate was get three skeins of DK weight yarn in the Fragrant colorway.  I love knitting cowls, so when she offered to knit up the yoke on my son's sweater in exchange for me knitting a Honey Cowl for her, I said yes!

I'm using the notes that I took for my extra large Honey Cowl last autumn and am hoping to have this pretty pink one done by December 29th (the day of our extended family's Christmas party.  I'm already about four and half inches in (one skein's worth) and so I think that finishing it just might be do-able!

I've been reading Evening Class and just wrapped that up last night.  Now I'll start reading all of the Christmas books I have!  I think that I'll start with The Lion in the Box.  The children and I just read Something for Christmas and thought that it was very sweet!

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Today was quite a Monday.  We were away all last week visiting family while Papa was on a work trip to Texas.  Visiting was loads of fun and I got to tackle most of our Christmas shopping while we were near fun shops, but I feel very behind on Christmas preparations now that we are home.  I was able to keep my hands busy while we were doing our lessons with one of my very favorite December activities:  making paper snowflakes!  I only finished up the large coffee filter ones and so tomorrow I'll work on the smaller cupcake liner snowflakes.  Other than twinkle lights, I think that the wintry windows are my favorite decorations!


   

Seven!

How is our sweet boy seven years old already?

Late Autumn Nature Table...

::  Dried Hydrangea  ::  Eucalyptus ::  The Story of Christmas  ::

Icons in the Guest Bedroom...

Trading...

This morning was spent with one of my sisters, sipping steamy mugs of tea and knitting while simultaneously tending our passel of  little ones.  Kate and I ended up trading our knitting projects:  my sweater was behaving badly and the stockinette on her hat was a bore.  The hat is nearly done now and based on Instagram updates, it seems like Button's sweater may actually be on his body rather than stuffed into a project bag tomorrow!  

The Messiah...

 

 

 On a whim, I decided to join two of our children's godparents at a sing-a-long for The Messiah at a rather large university.  I was filled with excitement at 12pm when I found out about the event, but at 7:04 pm when I was struggling to get the children into their car seats and find my keys (for a 7:30 start!), I was decidedly less so.  The effort (and our late arrival!) was worth it, though.  It was great to see godparents and we were able to hear all of the best parts.  Though the children weren't listening very intently, they were pretty quiet and well behaved which meant I could enjoy the music!  

A Very Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

Three Years...

Three years ago today, our parish bought a house with a three car garage.

 

  

It was a gorgeous property, but everyone was a little dubious when Father John said that he wanted to renovate this garage into a chapel.

But with God's help (and Miguel's!), he did it!

Glory to God for All Things!

(If you would like to see the work in progress, click HERE)

Icons in Grandfather Bear's Office...

Here's the icon corner in my father-in-law's office.  Isn't it amazing?

Our Namesday Boy...

 

Happy Namesday, Little Man!!  We love you, Sweet Boy!

Living and Learning: December...

Faith
Saint Alexander
Saint Nicholas
Saint Herman of Alaska
Saint Lucia
The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Homemaking
Finalize Plans for Little Man's Namesday and Birthday
Christmas Planning, Shopping, and Wrapping Gifts
Christmas Decorating
Christmas Tree
Nativity Preparations with Children
Perfect Stovetop Popcorn Recipe
Follow Cleaning Plan in Preparation for Nativity
Solidify Plans for the Twelve Days of Christmas
Decorate Kitchen with a Winter Jasmine Plant and a Potted Rosemary Plant
Enjoy Citrus Fruits - Oranges, Clementines, Tangerines, Grapefruit, etc.
Clean House for Nativity from Top to Bottom
Finish Tama sweater for Button
Begin Tama Sweater for Little Man
Begin Lap Blanket

Themes
Gingerbread
Saint Nicholas
Winter
Christmas

Read Alouds 
Christmas Book Basket

Special Days
Uncle Gregory's Birthday - 3rd
Little Man's Namesday - 4th
Auntie Kate's Namesday - 8th
Little Man's 3rd Birthday - 12th
Full Cold Moon - 16th
Uncle Nicolas' Namesday - 19th
Auntie Anna's Birthday and Namesday - 22nd
Lucy's Namesday - December 26th
Little Man's Hospital Homecoming Anniversary - 31st

Learning
Practice Entering the Church Prayerfully and Properly
Practice Chanting The Lord's Prayer
Clearing the Table after Meals
Washing Dishes and Loading the Dishwasher
Tidy bedrooms each morning
Tidy the playroom each afternoon
Put Away Own Laundry
Nature table scene
Christmas book basket
Watercoloring
Gingerbread House Building
Christmas Parade
Winter Wonderland of Lights Display
Living Nativity
Puzzles
Decorating the Christmas Tree
Children’s Nativity Play Set
Encourage imaginative play by not over-scheduling our days
Take the children for walks in the woods
Polish wooden toys together
Attend a Performance of the Nutcracker
Celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas

Yarn Along: Button's Tama

I am down to my last sleeve on Button's Tama ((Shepherd's Wool in the colorway Milk Chocolate)!  Hallelujah!  I'll finish it this week, block it, and add the buttons.  I think that I am going to knit a blanket next, but we'll see.

I'm read through my December UK Country Living early this month.  It was stocked at Barnes and Noble before the month even began (which I've never seen before), so that was exciting!  The children and I are reading one or two Christmas stories each night.  I've started with the ones that we borrowed from the library first (I felt a little badly for taking such a lot of them out for our family).  I'll take photographs of the ones we borrowed and ones we own so I can remember them from year to year.

December Sponsor News...

 Welcome back to Liturgical Time!

Liturgical Time provides handmade infinity veils, chapel veils, mantillas, and Christian headcoverings for their patrons to wear in church, at prayer, or in everyday life. They are the creators of the Eternity Veil - the original infinity scarf style head covering. They are able to take special orders, and to provide some customization, so don't hesitate to make special requests. Their veils are made with prayer and packaged with care. Please stop by their shop to buy a beautiful headcovering!  Remember:  Ten percent of gross sales from Chapel Veils at Liturgical Time Veil Shop are always donated to charity. At the present time, this money is being used to provide emergency assistance to children who have been orphaned and families who have been displaced as a result of the civil war in Syria.

And welcome back sponsor, New Cardea!

New Cardea is an online shop for digital art including Orthodox stamps for the Christian crafter. Stamps are used for scrapbooking, card-making or as printable coloring pages.