the twelve days of Christmas

From the "secular" perspective around us, Christmas starts after Thanksgiving and ends on December 26th.  Lately in our home, we have been making efforts to more accurately match our family's Christmas season to that of the Church's liturgical calendar.  December is for Advent; a time of prayer, waiting and preparing.  During Advent we hold off on singing Christmas carols and sing Advent hymns instead.  We focus on our Jesse Tree and study the genealogy of Jesus and salvation history.  Throughout the weeks we add decorations little-by-little and we eagerly wait until Christmas eve to decorate our tree.  Christmas cookies are baked but kept in the freezer.  We light our outdoor lights as an external sign of witness to our waiting.  Ultimately it makes for four very special weeks of anticipation.  

But by Christmas eve we are also excited and ready to welcome the Christ child into our homes.  And our Christmas season lasts many days.  We eat too much sugar, stay up too late, sing Christmas carols, open gifts and more.  We celebrate for twelve days until Epiphany, and even then the season doesn't end until the Baptism of our Lord and finally the Feast of the Presentation in February (the Christmas tree goes down before this, but we may keep our nativity scene up).

This year Michael had almost 10-days off in a row.  It was wonderful.   Here is an iphone photo dump on how we FEASTED.  Apparently I was too busy celebrating to take out our camera and take some quality photos ;-).

The boys were fitted for their own hockey skates and they went ice skating twice.

We had a family movie night.

We took morning walks to get bagels and coffee almost daily!!

Family Night Out at a nearby shopping center.

We cheered for the DUCKS at a hockey game.

Boys got new mittens (that I forgot to throw into their stockings).

Performed a family Christmas play, complete with flying angels.

Cinnamon buns for the feast of Mary Mother of God.

Several trips to the park.

Spent time with Papa and Grandma.

Today marks the Twelfth day of Christmas, and naturally I am a little relieved to start easing back into our regular routine of naps, work, homeschooling and early bedtimes.  The holiday season is  wonderful and special-- but so is our ordinary life.  I feel filled with possibilities for our new year and anxious for a fresh start. 

Onward to 2015.  Happy New Year!