Christmas Activities

This year, we opened up presents with my family on Christmas eve, not ideal at all in my opinion, but it was the only time we had to do it. The kids got some great gifts this year. Their favorites is probably the recordable story books that my sister and brother in law gave them. After opening presents we went to the children's Mass at our parish as a family on Christmas Eve. Then afterwards we went to meet my family and my brother-in-law's parents for dinner, as we always do. :) It's a fun and tasty tradition.

Here's a pic of all of us after we were done eating. :)

Afterwards I went to the Midnight Mass at our Parish to serve as a cantor and play the violin. The organist at our parish is amazing, and he suggested we play "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Handel's Messiah. Through the grace of God it came out pretty well, and I think it was spiritually uplifting to people from what people told me. Good music lifts the mind to reflect on heavenly things. Good as in appropriate music (ie chant, polyphony and good classical sacred music), not as in skill. ;) Not complimenting myself, but Handel. Haha! By the same token, bad music does great harm to the soul. As a side note, I recommend people to listen to this talk, "Music and the Soul: Restoring or Destroying the Inner Man" from the Institute of Catholic Culture.

Christmas Day I went again to cantor for Mass. Afterwards we went to New Jersey as usual to celebrate Christmas with my mom's family. This year, in an effort to help the kids (and us) remember the reason we celebrate Christmas I brought a child's nativity set that this sweet old woman at our church gave us. Now, mind you, this nativity set is not a toy, but a real set that just isn't as fragile.  My cousin and her son made a birthday cake for Jesus, so I put the nativity set next to that. hehe! :)  I should have taken a picture, but I forgot to, but here's a pic of most of the pieces of the set:

Another side point. I used to think making a birthday cake for Jesus, was a silly, trivial thing to do. However, I've changed my mind on this. Here's why. I was talking to Mary before Christmas about why we celebrate Christmas and that it's the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus- his birthday. She immediately responded, "Are we going to make Him a birthday cake? and give Him presents?" The fact of the matter is, this is what children associate with birthdays, so this helps them understand that it's Jesus's birth we are celebrating amid all the distractions of getting toys and silly songs that the world presents us during the Advent and Christmas season. So, we will always have a birthday cake for Jesus while we have small children, whether my cousin makes it, or I make it. Also, maybe next year, I will get my act together and make "presents" to give to Jesus. When Mary asked me about presents for Jesus, I told her, "Well, we don't give Jesus presents, like we do for each other for birthdays. We make a present of ourselves and give Jesus our hearts, minds and souls and love Him." So I think next year, I will make little present cards and write on them various gifts we can give him and maybe throw in some "frankincense, gold and myrrh."  

Back to this year's Christmas activities. The Friday during the octave of Christmas, I took my piano students, and their siblings to a local Catholic nursing home to play a small Christmas recital for the residents. The residents were so appreciative, and it was truly such a blessing to US to play for them and see the sisters at work serving their neighbor- the residents. It's so good for our children to see these sisters who have devoted their lives to serving the elderly with love and dignity. Here are some pics:

Ok, that's it for now! I will write another post, hopefully soon sharing what we do for Advent. I know, it's really belated. haha! God bless you with a wonderful New Year!