In Anticipation of Gaudete Sunday

"Shout, O Israel: be glad, and rejoice with all thy heart."

This is the first year I've set up the Christmas tree before December even started. I justified it by painting a dozen Jesse tree ornaments and putting on signs of creation like birds and some beehive ornaments, bright red apples, etc. Today, though, I went crazy and finished decorating the tree. As I posted earlier this month, "We need a little Christmas right this very minute!" And I just couldn't wait any longer for the glitz and glitter.

Some years are like that. What's yours been like? What's the first word or thought that comes to mind when you think of 2025? Happy? Sad? Phew, we've almost made it?

Do you need a little Christmas too? 

Decorating the tree brings back so many great memories from the past. Of course, it's a little bittersweet, but, still, many ornaments spark a flash of joy and an interior slide show. I'll share some of these memories in pictures.

Our first few Christmases we had little money and no ornaments. I bought a box of wooden ornaments, probably at the Goodwill, and painted them. I think we bought one box of colored balls and a little garland rope. That was about it. Now we have ornaments enough to decorate a multitude of trees. Anyway, seeing those painted ornaments always makes me smile and remember those early days of marriage and the birth of our first child. 

A lot of our ornaments came from other people, not just our siblings and children but from a teenage babysitter and my students in religious ed and my fourth grade class at St. Louis parochial school in Alexandria. Those were busy and fun times.

My sister who died in July often sent cards and at Christmas occasionally an ornament like the little gingerbread boy below. I have several counted cross stitch ornaments another sister made in 1981 as well as several from Christmas parties with our square dance camping club, Campfire Squares. Our wonderful caller and his wife have gone to their eternal reward. I hope wherever they are they are dancing. They were among some of the most amazing, kind, and cheerful people I've ever known.

I especially treasure the ornaments made by family: by my Aunt Dorothy who almost always tucked a little ornament or a family story in her Christmas cards, by our children and grandchildren -- although when our kids established their own homes, I gave them their box of ornaments as starter kits for their own trees, remembering too well the sparse trees of our early years. 

What a treasure to put on a photo of our granddaughter playing Mary in a Christmas pageant. And our son always had a flare for origami! Then there are the many ornaments with little notes on the back with a growing list of names as more babies joined the family. And now ornaments gifted to us by grandchildren like the little chicken crocheted by a very talented tween who is now a teen. I delight in adding them all to the tree with a prayer of gratitude. Our grandchildren light up our lives.

I also love the ornaments I've made myself over the years like some victorian fans and a group of little mice resting in walnut shell beds. They always make me smile.

Today I spent the early morning decorating and then made bread and cookies with my hiking buddies who came for the day. They are out now driving around in the tractor and cutting down bamboo. We are at constant war with the encroaching bamboo forest, but even that is a blessing because the kids love it. When they go home we'll settle like "mom in her kerchief and dad in his cap" to watch a Christmas movie before going to bed for a "long winter's nap." And if the weather man is right we'll wake up to a snowy Sunday, hopefully not enough to keep us from going to Mass. Whatever the season of life, I choose joy even in suffering. Like St. Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I say rejoice."

I hope no matter what 2025 has brought for you that these waning days of Advent and the anticipation of Christmas brings you many glowing memories to basque in. We have the choice to embrace the Grinch that lurks at our door or to let our hearts swell with the joy of welcoming the King. Let us pray for each other that we will all enjoy a miracle of grace during this season of light and joy. With the help of the Holy Family, how can we not? So turn on the lights and the Christmas music. Bake some cookies or simmer some spices and read the Christmas story from Luke. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given."