Another Fun Tradition for the Season -- Building Candy Houses

Everyone has traditions that they repeat again and again over the years. One of ours is decorating graham cracker houses. We usually do it during the Christmas season, but if we miss it we can play catch up on Valentine's Day or have a Christmas in July event. One of our granddaughters is a tremendous artist and her houses are always exquisite. She's grown up now, but still enjoys the project when she's around for it.

Sunday Meditation: Gratitude, Hospitality, and Regenerative Repentance

St. Augustine says that gratitude to God is the beginning of faith. Are we grateful in these  last days of Advent? What a blessing to fill the manger with straws of gratitude softening and overflowing and making ready the rough bed for the infant Savior.

 Beginning in the days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I started filling Santa's sleigh with gratitude messages to deliver to the Holy Family in the stable at Bethlehem. Before a rosary lunch I held in November and before Thanksgiving dinner, we invited our guests, from the littlest on up, to write notes of gratitude to God in thanksgiving for all his gifts. That little sleigh full of thanks will grace our kitchen table throughout the Christmas season. I love to sit there and pull out reminders of the many gifts God gives us. And to add still more love notes. Praise be to You, Lord Jesus Christ.

Come for Lunch and Pray the Rosary Together!

During the COVID lockdowns I began hosting bi-monthly rosary lunches with a group of Catholic women to get us all out of isolation -- laughing, chatting, and praying together. I still do them occasionally but not as frequently. They are always a blessing to me personally and fulfill a desire God has given me to practice hospitality.

This morning, reading The Imitation of Christ, I meditated on this passage: