This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations.
Looks pretty keen huh? We got this nativity scene a couple of years ago when a man came to our parish to raise money to help people in the Holy Lands. He gave a really great speech and besides a few other things we got this nativity set. It is made of olive wood and looks really nifty. In fact Mom likes it so much, we leave it up all year.
So earlier today Anne was cutting up mushrooms, and she found this!
Nothing, not even a fungus should ever look like that.
As we get nearer to Christmas I realize there are some problems with living Florida. What I mean is in Ohio it was always very easy to tell when it was getting close to Christmas because, well, it would start to snow. Now I have to wait for the radio to start playing Christmas music to know when it’s nearing Christmas, which can get kinda tricky. I guess I could use a calendar, but really where’s the fun in that?
Happy Gaudete Sunday everyone. Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday of advent and is a day of celebration (unlike all those other feast days in advent…).
Today is the day we celebrate the nearness of Christmas. Today is the day that everyone wears pink (except Stephen), to show how happy they are. So, to celebrate this day I want to share with everyone one of our new favorite Christmas decorations. Santa in a candle!
I think this could become a great new Christmas tradition like elf on a shelf, except Santa can’t move cause he’s stuck in a candle! Don’t ask me how he got there, because I don’t know. All I know is we were burning the candle, so the wax was all liquid, and somebody (Stephen or Nicholas) stuck Santa in the wax. Now Santa is trapped in the hardened wax. We could light the candle, melt the wax, and pull the jolly fat man out, or just burn the candle until Santa is free, but then we would lose this great decoration.
Many times when Advent rolls around, not only are we seriously unprepared (we almost never have candles for the Advent wreath), sometimes we even have to buy a new Advent wreath. But not this year.
No, this year we were more than prepared. This year we had our candles and the wreath to go with it.
This year we have the advent calendar out,
and all the pieces ready to be hung up.
This year we even have a Jesse Tree 
(something I don’t even remember doing before now)! Yep, I think it is safe to say we were all prepared this year. Then again this post is a little late…
Happy St. Nick’s Day dear readers! Now if you didn’t know that today is St. Nick’s Day then you are not German. I don’t care where you were born or who your parents are, if you don’t celebrate the sixth of December by putting your shoes out for the patron saint of children to fill with candy then you are not a true German (the same way people who don’t eat hot dogs are not true Americans).
Now many people think that in German tradition St. Nicholas only brings gifts on Christmas, but that’s not actually true. In traditional German tradition the Christkindl (Christ Child) brings Christmas gifts. While St. Nicholas brings gifts on his feast day (today). he places his gifts in children’s shoes that they put out for him on the night of the 5th (Nathaniel’s is the cowboy boot).
Every year he brings us candy and a brand new Christmas ornament. The ornaments always work together on some theme (this year we got sea animals), and are usually picked out specifically for each family member. 
(They are arranged in order of oldest to youngest; the stripped fish at the top is Dad’s, then the blue seahorse is Mom’s, and the pink dolphin at the end is Veronica’s) This is a great tradition because now I have over twenty cool and unique ornaments.
This year to celebrate the day Anne made traditional German spice cookies
and we packaged them in bags to give to our friends at the parish hall during coffee and doughnuts last Sunday (by the way please comment and let us know how they tasted). Like Nathaniel said, we’re really thematic this year.
Hey everyone, it’s December fourth! You know what that means. I can now officially brag about my birthday! Now, this may seem like an odd thing to say, but there is actually a rule in our house about when you can start bragging about your birthday. The reason for this is, apparently when my older brothers were little they would start to brag to their brothers, (and Mom) about their birthdays at least three months in advance. So, Mom made a rule that you had to wait till it was a month away from your birthday to start talking about it. That being said… It’s a month away from my birthday, it’s a month away from my birthday, it’s a month away from my birthday. Okay, now I’m done.
Today Veronica showed me her very first comic book! Maybe Stephen has a replacement. The comic is called the Pouncing Bobcat. 
It depicts what Veronica does in the morning: Jump out of bed, snuggle, eat a peanut butter snack, and eat an Ibis (wait…). Pretty good for a seven year old. Veronica says she would make more comics but she can never keep an idea in her head long enough to write it. Looks like you’re safe for now Stephen.
So, for dinner tonight we are eating goulash, and I was wondering; who decided to name it goulash? I mean, it sounds look the name of a horrifying monster. Don’t get me wrong, it looks and smells delicious, but personally I think someone who was editing a cook book, and a horror novel got confused and switched the recipe’s and the monster’s names. Soon in book stores near you; Night of the Delicious Meat Stew!
Remember Stephen’s post about the uses of plastic swords? Well, as it turns out Veronica has figured out her own use for them. So the other day Veronica came up to Mom and said, “Hey Mom, look at my new insignia.” 
Mom said, “I didn’t know you had an insignia.” Veronica said, “Now I do!” Looks like those plastic swords can also be used for insignias. Who knew?
