Christmas

First Sunday of Advent

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One of the things I became re-acquainted with when I began to attend Mass at the Catholic Church was the liturgical calendar. I had never realized that just like an Asian New Year and a Jewish New Year, there was also a Catholic New Year, and it begins with Advent.

Once Thanksgiving is over, many move into Christmas mode. After all, it is the Christmas season.

There is the misconception.

The Christmas season doesn’t actually begin until Christmas Eve, the Vigil of the Nativity. The song, The Twelve Days of Christmas…well, those twelve days begin on December 26 and conclude on January 6, also known as Three Kings Day, Los Posadas, Epiphany, and Twelfth Night. That was the traditional day to receive presents. When I was involved in medieval re-enacting, we often gave gifts and celebrated Twelfth Night.

After Thanksgiving, begins the season of Advent, the time of waiting; waiting for the birth of the Christ child. Like Lent it is an anticipatory time. We reflect on the past year that’s concluded. We begin a new Gospel cycle. This is the A year – Matthew. I am very fond of Matthew. It was his Gospel year when I first joined the church and I took a great lecture series on his gospel. I learned a great deal and so I became very attached to him.

Today, our church gave out a Daily Reflection book for Advent and Christmas. This one is compact and gives you something each day to read. It takes about five minutes or so, and you can meditate longer if you have the time and the inclination. Personally, I’m going to try and sit quietly with a cup of tea while I read and reflect.

I read the Introduction and then turned the book over to read the description on the back. The blurb recommending the book at the top caught my eye, and then I realized that the blurb was written by my godmother. A surprise that brought a smile to my face.

Front of the book given out by my church for the Advent Season.


Back of the book with the description and a blurb about the author, Bishop Robert F. Morneau.


There are many Advent resources offered in paper form, online or as e-books. I will sometimes buy the e-book of whatever the book is that my church gives out so I can read it on my Kindle, only if the price is reasonable.
One of the things I love about these little books is the change and the challenge to do a daily meditation as well as the Introduction to a book that I might not have ordinarily found on my own.

The Advent wreath is up, the banners are changed, the colors are purple, the incense is fragrant. Now the waiting begins, and a new search for something wonderful on this Advent journey.

Later in the week, I will share some other resources for your Advent journey.

50-38 – Chinese Food

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While I love a good macaroni and cheese (Kraft blue box original), probably my next best comfort food is Chinese. It could be take-out, eat in, buffet, I don’t care. It is the best food in the world. It might even be my first go-to comfort food.

When I was a kid, we used to go to this place near our apartment. I don’t remember the name of it, but it was on Horace Harding Blvd. in Queens. It wasn’t brightly lit. That’s how we kids knew it was a fancy restaurant. My one vivid memory is being dressed up, so it may have been for some kind of school congratulatory meal. I remember the owner knew my parents. He’d greet us at the door and show us to our table, talking to my parents the whole time. My Dad was a friendly guy, and everyone loved him. It was like going to Cheers. 

We would sit at a large round table, covered with a white linen tablecloth. My parents would order: two from column A, one from column B, duck sauce and mustard. My mother put a dab of hot mustard in her wonton soup. I have never dared. Everything was put in the center and we shared, serving ourselves. This was the one place that no one ordered soda. We had a glass of water and of course, the hot tea. I loved those small tea cups, and I would put in more sugar than I should have. I think that was where I got my love for drinking tea. For dessert it was always either vanilla ice cream or pineapples with a fortune cookie. I would get the pineapples, but I think I only got them because they came with a toothpick that I used to pick up the small chunks of pineapple.

We used to bring Chinese take-out to my grandmother’s house sometimes. My grandmother’s house was kosher, so she never ate any of the food, and she made us eat on paper plates because we couldn’t put the non-kosher food on hers. We had to sit in the dining room and eat, and then clean up and take all of our leftovers with us.

As an adult, it took us a couple of years to find our perfect Chinese take-out place in our new town. My barometer is the fried rice, the egg rolls, and the spare ribs.I like really fried rice, brown in color with nice chunks of pork. My egg rolls also need to have little bits of pork in it and a nice crunchy shell. Spare ribs – the more burned, the better.

There is something warm and comforting about the smells and tastes of Chinese food. I really don’t know what it is.

My husband’s family has a tradition of eating Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve, and so we’ve adopted that for our family. We even have a Chinese take-out box ornament for our tree. Our kids know it, and look forward to it each year. It is a really nice tradition and ritual for them. They get a new pair of pajamas; we eat Chinese take-out, and we bake cookies for Santa.

It’s warm and wonderful.

Creative Presents

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My son collaborated with his Dad (at least his Dad’s debit card) to make me a mini Lego figure of Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead. He designed it himself. Then they both made the poncho on our home printer without letting me see. It’s a superb job. He used mgfcustoms for the construction.

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Standing behind mini Daryl is a cup designed by my daughter. My family got me Lindt chocolate truffles and as it turns out, two bags of those fit perfectly into a Trenta sized Starbucks cup that my daughter saved, washed, and decorated.

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Chocolate Caramel and White Chocolate; my favorites.

Family Sunday

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Two days past Christmas and all through the house, all were stirring except for the mouse.

My husband still doesn’t understand that the Saturday night Mass and the Sunday morning Masses are the same Mass, the same obligation, and therefore I only need to attend one. I went last night, but he’s still wondering why I haven’t gone yet today. It’s long after two in the afternoon, and about halfway through listening to one of my new CDs, I was kind of hit with the beauty of what we, as a family, were all doing and that today is the Feast of the Holy Family.

Since the Second Vatican Council, the Feast of the Holy Family occurs the Sunday after Christmas or if that Sunday falls after January 1st, the Holy Family is celebrated on December 30th. This really is a big week on the Catholic calendar; a big month really, beginning with the start of the new liturgical year and Advent, going right into the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and now the Nativity, the Holy Family, and Friday brings the Solemnity of Mary, another holy day of obligation, followed soonafter by Epiphany or Three Kings Day and the Lord’s Baptism.

The calendar can feel a bit out of order sometimes. We go from the Nativity in December, the joys of a baby’s birth, and not even six months later we are observing Good Friday, a grown man’s death, murder by crucifixion and Easter, the Resurrection. I used to think, growing up that Good Friday and Easter celebrated the same day – the crucifixion. Now, I do understand the difference, and how the different days are observed: one a day of utmost sadness and one of incredible joy.

Veneration of the Holy Family was begun in the 17th century in what was known as New France by the bishop, Saint Francois de Laval. The Feast of the Holy Family, as it is known now, was instituted as a holy day and on the Catholic calendar by Pope Leo XIII in 1893. It was to be held in January and appeared on the calendar during the Octave of the Epiphany until 1969 when things changed under Vatican II.

Our family has spent today enjoying our gifts from Christmas as well as each other’s company in relative peace. My two youngest kids are showing my husband how to play Minecraft on his new tablet; the three of them are lying on the other side of the bed chattering and pointing and blowing things up to help build his world. My oldest son slept, happy not to be bothered by the usual requests of his prescence by his family for such mundanities as food and company. He is off at work at this moment and I believe he did journey out for a fire call with his station. My part in the family’s peace is to pop in my headphones and listen to my two new CDs; new ones from Adele and Mumford and Sons. I transferred them to my kindle, snuggled under my covers with my sore knee up, disappeared under the darkness of my eye mask and enjoyed the music, all the while thinking how lovely the day’s been.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Holy Family than to enjoy my own.