Candlemas Day


Last Thursday our "group" met for beeswax candle dipping. I haven't done this with a group in many years now - it is a wonderful experience. I plan a pathway for everyone to follow after their dip - out of the kitchen and around the dining room table, for instance. This helps keep everyone organized. I also started the youngest first and let the older group model some homemade modeling beewax - they were quite content while the younger group got a start on their candles. Then I called over for more candle dippers once the younger ones got started. We had an age span of 3 to 14 and a good time was had by all. The warm kitchen and the small wonderful smell of the beewax does good for one's soul when the weather has been cold and icy.


On February 2nd - my children took their candles and began to decorate them using the thin sheets of decorating wax. A little goes a long way. Without any prompting they chose many symbols of our faith to put on their candles. Aidan wanted help with a figure of Jesus holding the cup - which I was happy to help with - but then he says to me "Now how about some people around Jesus - you could make them small..." I knew what he was getting at. "Aidan," I said, "We are not going to fit the entire Last Supper on this small candle!" Katie also made some lovely candles with wax flowers using some basic beeswax punches. When our candles were ready - we set up our festival table for a little table top play. Decorating wax and punches can be found here.

I adapted a play that was written by W.M. von Heider that was intended more for Christmas time - I rewrote the verses but had to thank the original author who sparked my imagination so with out further ado we present...

On Candlemas Day

We are the gnomes
Who tend the good brown earth
Where there are rocks and stones
And cracks filled with soil;
The good brown earth


Snowdrops
We are the flowers
The first of many to follow
That root deep in the soil
Twixt the cracks in the rocks
In the good brown earth



Bees
We are the bees
That make wax and honey
From summer flowers
That root deep in the soil
Twixt the cracks in the rocks
In the good brown earth

Sorry I don't have a picture of the children - my children took the part of the children!

Children
We are the children
Who have melted the wax
To make the candles
A gift from the bees
That gather the wax and honey
From summer flowers
That root deep in the soil
Twixt the cracks in the rocks
In the good brown earth.


Angels
We are the angels
From heaven above;
Both day and night
We watch over the children
Who have melted the wax
To make the candles
A gift from the bees
That gather wax and honey
From summer flowers
That root deep in the soil
Twixt the cracks in the rocks
In the good brown earth


Mary
I am Mary, the mother meek and mild,
Mary, the mother of the Holy Child;
Now kindle your candles
And remember this day
When at the Temple, I presented
Two turtles doves and my sweet Babe.
Light your candles and remember
The Light of World
whose birth was beheld
By angels from heaven above
Who both day and night
Watch over the children,
Who have melted the wax
To make the candles
A gift from the bees
That gather wax and honey
From summer flowers
That root deep in the soil
Twixt the cracks in the rocks
In the good brown earth.

After the little "play" we took the Candle Blessing from the Rural Life Prayerbook

Blessing of Candles

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who has made heaven and earth.

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, bless these candles at our request. By virtue of the holy cross, Lord, pour upon them the virtue of Your heavenly blessing. You have given them to mankind to drive away the dark. May they, at this sign of the cross, receive such blessing that wherever they may be lit or placed, the princes of darkness may depart and be afraid and fly in fear from those houses with all their helpers. Nor may they dare again to trouble or bother those who serve You, almighty God, who live and are King for ever and ever
R. Amen.

(And they are sprinkled with holy water.)

Ordinarily I would have taken them to Mass in the morning and asked our priest to bless the candles but it just was not happening! But we enjoyed our own little candle blessing and will keep the candles for meal times and prayer.

Happy New Year!
Water, boats, and fire - what more could a boy ask for? Nothing! My six-year old is so enamored of this tradition that I have adapted from All Year Round that he asks on nearly every holiday - "Is this the day we make the pool and light the boats?"


Every year since before he was even born I have gone out on December 31st in search of clumps of moss - a vital component to the construction of our pool that we sail our New Year's Eve boats on. This year was actually easy - the girls and I had constructed a moss garden for a botany session this past year and I was able to get it from beneath the snow right out on our deck. I thawed it for a bit in a bin in the bathtub and came out with two respectable clumps of moss. Moss might be a primitive plant but I am impressed! The moss becomes the islands for boats to sail around - I create a base layer with stones and assorted sea shells and then put the moss on top.

I used to have a beautiful blue enamel bowl which has fallen victim to the charms of childhood - in other words I haven't seen it in years and it will probably be unearthed in the backyard in another hundred years from now - so I have made do with one of my large shallow mixing bowls. The bowl is set on what was our Advent wreath.
The making of the boats is a tradition in itself as all the children try to crack their walnuts exactly in half. I took the wick out of several tea light candles - set them in the shells and then poured melted wax back around the wick - this worked even better than the small birthday candles I usually use.
The shells placed around the bowl are all inscribed with a little message - when your boat floats closest to a shell - that's yours to keep and maybe inspire for the New Year. In past years I've made little scrolls attached with gold thread.

Of course the tradition would not be complete without a fair amount of shoving, sinking of boats, disappointment when wet candles will not relight and even a burnt finger or two (just one this year). New to the festivities is the 14 year-old in the background asking "Do I have to do this?" This question coming on the tales of being asked whether said 14 year-old could have a cup of coffee at 9:00 pm. "Yes" to the first, a resounding "no" to the second.

But there is something just a little bit magical when the boats are burning with their little light shining on the shells and stones beneath - I think it reminds us that our year is filled possibility - uncharted waters and new islands to explore!

The Holy House

I first heard about the Holy House of Loreto at a the CHAPLET homeschool conference years ago. Fr. Ronan Murphy spoke about "The Family" - the Holy Family being the example of Holiness for all families. He also told of one of his greatest gifts as a priest was when he offered Holy Mass at the Holy House of Loreto. This year I put together a little Holy House for our House - I hope it's little light will help remind us to make our home more like that little home where our Lord grew up.


I found this Christmas tea light lantern pattern - a little glitter - some tissue paper for the windows - and a small cut out of Our Lady and Child from an old Christmas card and I had our the little house
Then I took some very simple wool angels and a bit of silver ribbon and hung everything from a wooden arch that I saved from an old mobile. You could also use a small wreath on the horizontal and add two more angels (one for each corner) - which I might do for a future house.
I used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the house and to the arch to make sure it was secure.

I would enlarge the lantern pattern next time - I managed to make it a little bigger on the computer but I really needed to get to a copy machine.

Here are a couple of posts I've enjoyed related to the day from....

Cottage Blessings

and...

Under Her Starry Mantle

Anyone else? Please leave a link in the comments section!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Getting the boys to Mass on a Monday after Sunday was a feat. "What!!?? Mass again?" But we made it and Aidan enjoyed showing our DRE and Fr Wayne his Sunday Sticker Book.
After Mass we zipped up to our favorite florist shop and bought a single white rose for our Advent Garden.


Later in the evening we gathered for the lighting of the garden. We began with this verse by Christiana Rossetti:

Herself a rose, who bore the Rose,
She bore the Rose and felt its thorn.
All Loveliness new-born
Took on her bosom its repose,
And slept and woke there night and morn.

When the candles were lit we sang....

Immaculate Mary
Maria Walks Amid The Thorn
(the tune to this song is in on our Christmas Star cd under the title "Maria Wandered Through A Wood")
Joseph and Mary (selection 13)
A Virgin Most Pure (selection 14)

Dressing up....


......a dress. I was very thankful when a friend passed on a lovely black merino wool dress to my daughter. She will be helping Dad with the annual Senior Citizen Prom at the high school where he works. Plain black didn't quite seem in the holiday spirit so I took some thin red and silver ribbon and careful woven it through the knit of the dress.

Dressing up....

......cookies. Katie made chocolate chip cookies with something a little extra for the reception today after the Youth Orchestra's holiday concert. She added a cup of chopped dried cranberries. They are so good!

Kind Old Man St. Nicholas Dear....


...Come to my house this year! Aidan was anxious to get started shining Papa's shoes last evening. The rest of the children joined in later.

For years now this first full weekend in December has been a very busy one - this year is no exception. It is always the date of our youth orchestra's winter concert and Ed facilitates a student group at the local high school that puts on a prom for the senior citizens. Today there are rehearsals and auditions for state honor choir, oh, and a garden pickup too... and Mass! Whew!

Today will be busy but once again St. Nicholas has brought us something special that will certainly help keep a smile on our faces. To get us through we'll have dried cranberries, figs, and cherries. We'll be sure to take a few pieces of the candied ginger with us too. And to start us off Papa awoke in the wee hours to get some St. Nicholas boots ready for us to go with the usual citrus fruit and mixed nuts the good Saint brings for breakfast.


To help keep Mama sane today as we drive around from here to there and all around I will enjoy this CD I purchased with some other music for the Advent season. It is beautiful! And finally when all is done we will snuggle up with the book with which I first fell in love with St. Nicholas - St. Nicholas' Travels by Hertha Pauli. I first found this book in our local library but I finally bought a used copy of my own. After all is said and done today we'll snuggle in bed and hear the story of when St. Nicholas met Constantine the Great, and of their attendance at the Council of Nicaea.

In this story we hear how this good Saint, who is so associated with the Feast of Christmas never had a Christmas - the bishops at the council were in doubt as to when the observance of the Nativity should take place - it had happened "in the days of Herod" - but could it have been a spring day? the shortest day of the year? the day when the Magi visited Bethlehem?

"The Bishop Nicholas of Myra did not live to see the question settled. He never saw a Christmas. He died as he lived, a faithful servant of God. He prayed on his deathbed as he had prayed in the cell at Nicaea, and here, too, the light of Heaven was suddenly round him and the three angels descended again, to receive his soul."

Is it any wonder then that the good Bishop comes each year to teach us something about keeping Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!


The gathering of tasty morsels begins well before the Thanksgiving Holiday - this year we purchased our turkey from Country Ark Farm - a nice 29 lb. bird - not our biggest but we will certainly have lots of leftovers.

The last pick up for our summer share at our CSA always comes right before Thanksgiving and we look forward to the brussel sprouts and cheese pumpkins especially.
I still remember the first year we joined the CSA (13 years ago!) and how amazed I was at the huge stalks of brussel sprouts - I realized my children have never known brussel sprouts in any other way! By the way, this year the boys discovered that the stalks make excellent swords after the sprouts are removed.
We had our pick of an assortment of root vegetables - these we will continue to see throughout the winter but Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without sweet potatoes from the garden.
We serve them baked - simply baked - it would be a high crime in this house to let anything even resembling a marchmellow anywhere near these lovelies!

The menu this year featured favorite simple foods in all their goodness

Roast turkey
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Brussel Sprouts
Cranberry-apple conserve
Stuffing
Small rosemary sourdough loaves
Corn pudding (made by Grandma!)
Sparkling cider

There were actually two kinds of stuffing - a big batch of apple-celery- onion stuffing and a smaller batch of oyster stuffing that my dear hubby made just for me!

The table was set and ready, we like the napkin holders from the Toymaker.
And new on our festival table this year were two Native American dolls that joined our pilgrims that I made years ago. These really aren't hard to make - the directions for basic heads can be found in The Nature Corner. A little wool for hair, some embroidery floss braided for the headband and there you go -

And last but not least, dessert!

We always have Pumpkin Whoopie pies - they are so good - another great recipe from the International Cookie Cookbook. I also tried a new, untried recipe but I figured how could anything with chocolate and pumpkin turn out bad? A little daring turned into a hit -
Pumpkin Chocolate Tart .