Gaudete Sunday!

Rejoice! We're more than halfway through Advent, and the celebration of the birth of our Lord is fast approaching.

Here's an entry from The Catholic Encyclopedia about "Gaudete Sunday."

And while I'm at it, here's a link to a site I've used several years now for its prayers. The kids take turns saying these Advent prayers each night at dinner as we light the candles on the wreath. (This site is full of other lovely little bits of information, too.)

We're reading "Bartholemew" daily and the kids are enjoying it, just as they've enjoyed Jotham's Journey and Tabitha's Travels. What they enjoy as much or more than the story is the special time with Daddy. He's a fun, funny, wonderful reader and I rejoice in the fact that we're not just educating them on the sly with this kind of reading, but we're creating cherished father/daughter memories.

We're also doing our other Advent calendars: little bits of Dickens' A Christmas Carol daily, and Miss Piggy and Kermit are inching their way toward their ironic gifts to one another (see this link to see what I'm talking about.) We're hanging tiny wooden ornaments on a little wooden tree each day. We're reading Scripture for the Jesse Tree and hanging Jesse ornaments on that tree, too (I use a small, artificial Christmas tree as our Jesse Tree.) And, of course, Joseph and Mary, from the Nativity set, are moving slowly through the house toward the stable. It's a small delight each day to see where the children have decided their journey will take them on their way to Bethlehem ... over the sofa and through the shelves to Bethlehem we go.

Rejoice!