lights, trees, gifts....Christmas!

A last game for cheering

Christmas is my favorite holiday, though I do love Easter. Other holidays were simply reasons to have a day off of school. Christmas and Easter...those are THE holidays. We get to celebrate through Catholic rituals, beautiful masses, and family traditions.

We're still in Advent, so it's time to repent and prepare ourselves for Christ's coming, but by the third week of Advent, we can also rejoice. This is about the time that we put up the Christmas tree, get some shopping and gift-wrapping done, and rev up the family time. 

Let's start with family...

Poppa and Milly

photo op with our first
Christmas decorations

There's more than one birthday in December!

then go to Christmas preparations
First we put up a small tree but then we decided that we really wanted the larger tree. So we moved the smaller one into the toy room (it was already completely decorated, after all) and put up the bigger tree in the family room. 

Each one is against the French door separating the rooms, and it appears that there's a reflection in the glass. But that's really the second tree glowing through. It's been fun seeing everyone's reaction when they realize they're looking at two trees. It's really odd because the small tree has colored lights and the bigger one has white lights. 

The kids are loving it!

I am getting a bit of sewing done. The last of the customer orders went out today, and I started a couple of little surprises for those near and dear. Of course, I can't take any chances, so you'll have to wait for the near and dear gifts. I'll show you the last customer item later in the week. 
In the meantime...

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Advent colors

In the Catholic church we celebrate the season of Advent as a time of penance and an opportunity to prepare for the Lord. The church is not decorated except for the purple altar cloths and the Advent wreath, which has three purple candles and one rose candle. Today's mass saw all four candles lit. When we return to mass to celebrate Christmas, the Advent wreath will have been put away until next year. 

There are many variations on the theme, and churches are free to do their own thing (so to speak), but the four candles must have these specific colors because each one represents a significant part of Advent. 

Many families have their own wreaths to help teach children about Advent. As a result there are many pictures of Advent wreaths on Pinterest that can give ideas for creating your own. 

Finding purple and rose quilts...not so easy. In fact, I'm really pushing the limits with these quilts. That's quite all right: I didn't expect to find many Advent quilts, but purple and rose are quite pretty together. Surely there's a grandma out there who had the idea.

If so, grandma is not posting much on Pinterest.  Here's hoping you have a great week before Christmas and are not too stressed.

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: L I G H T S

We spent this weekend in Natchitoches at the Lights Festival. Natchitoches bills itself as "The City of Lights," which has been celebrated since 1926. 

One of my fondest memories is of my sisters and me playing and rolling down the hill in front of the lake. I also remember picking stickers out of my clothing, which adds to the humor. 

Now one of my sisters lives on the lake just beyond that hill, and she is loving enough to invite us (the whole crazy family) to her house for the first weekend of December, which happens to be the festival weekend. That means lights, parades, fireworks, a craft fair, boat flotilla, and of course, Santa. 

And Christmas quilts to go along with the scenes because, believe me, this weekend was cold and wet (and unbelieveably rainy) so anyone out there would have wished for an extra-warm, heavy quilt. The rain was so heavy that the parade was canceled for the first time since 1959 

Though not quilts, these are adorable and certainly would be something that you'd likely see in one of the many boutiques along Front Street. 

Here's hoping you're getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoying the Advent season. We have not begun decorating, but that's okay, I prefer to spend time with family. Perhaps next weekend the stuff will come down and someone will put it all together.