A Festive Photo Dump

Merry Christmas!

Another beautiful Christmas season is upon us, after the longest possible Advent.
We are having a happy, cozy time of all 12 days of Christmas. It's my fave.

Five days before Christmas, the boys' school had their annual Christmas concert. Isaiah's class sang "The Friendly Beasts" and he did it so beautifully -- solemn but happy and proud and excited, with the quintessential scan of the audience for a familiar face and then an excited wave when he saw me and Elijah. I won't lie; I cried during his performance. I was so proud of him. He has come so far at school already.

Noah played St. Joseph in the Nativity play for the Grades 1s and 2s. I was equally proud of him (but I refrained from crying). When it came time for Noah's play, Isaiah came and sat with me and Elijah, and he was pleased to tell me all the kids' names.

As soon as the Christmas concert was finished, the excitement in our house became palpable.

Our tree. Oh my.
Year after year, we try to get all liturgical and wait to buy it until the 4th week of Advent. And year after year, the grocery store sells out of them at least a week before. Sigh.
Thankfully, Elijah's godfather kindly agreed to take Patrick and the older two to cut one down from his father's farm. The kids were so proud of themselves.

I tend to think that once we decorated it and put some gifts underneath, it was utterly charming.

Also, that angel, ready for takeoff, makes me laugh in the best way possible.

I made a gluten-free tourtiere for the first time. Gosh, I sound so hipster by saying that! But we've taken our kids off wheat (further proof of my hipster-ness?), and yet, meat pie (I used this recipe) is a tradition, so I needed to try something.

It looked gnarly. But once I baked it, it improved in appearance. And I am surprised at how delicious the pastry was. (Confession: it was a Glutino mix.)

I gave that statue of Mary holding the Infant Jesus to my grandmother for Christmas one year. After she died, my mom thought it would be fitting to pass it back on to me.

Patrick made this stable out of sticks and a piece of wood from a broken dresser. I love it.
Noah asked if he could put his favourite Rosary around the Baby Jesus.

And there was bacon. Hallelujah.

I adore these beautiful stockings made by aunt. She has made one of these for each of her great-nieces and great-nephews to celebrate Christmas with. They are works of art, which this photo does not give them justice.

My and my bookends right before leaving for Midnight Mass. The tradition of going to bed at 8:30pm on Christmas Eve and waking up around 11 to get dressed and dress up the kids always seems so... magical. Really, any Christmas liturgy is beautiful and astounding and wonderful. But we have made Midnight Mass a tradition since we moved to Ontario, and I look forward to it more than any other day of the year.

(In case you're wondering, the babies almost always nurse back to sleep and the older kids are always so perplexed, stunned and/or in awe that they do sit quietly. We let them lay down in the pew if they want to, though. Sometimes they fall back asleep as well. This is a tradition that may need to change as our children get older, especially if they are unable to fall asleep easily before and after the Mass, but for now, I treasure it.)

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Christmas morning was beautiful; having four kids to shop for made the under-the-tree sight all the more abundant (even though Elijah's wrapped gifts were fitted mini-crib sheets and a small toy). Despite the boys being older now, they still had the same delighted squeals of young children. The duct tape they got in their stockings made them as delighted as the toys they received.

This year the boys were each given a "budget" to buy gifts for their siblings and for me and Patrick. I was impressed at the thoughtful and practical ideas they came up with (for instance, Isaiah bought me a silicon parchment paper thing, for when I bake or roast veggies; Noah's doll for Anna, only $4.99 at the local department store, was her favourite gift by far. She has christened her, inexplicably, "Pancake.")

School will be starting on Monday, but first we get the joy of extending the excitement of Christmas -- my parents will be arriving this week. We are all anxious to see them.

It's so wonderful that Baby's First Christmas is so exciting and delightful, but it's even more spectacular that the Christmases only get better as they get bigger.