A very happy new year...

Well, I'm back again, and by the looks of my December timesheet, which I just completed, I won't be taking any vacation time between now and when the baby is born. :) I have plenty of sick time, but you can only use that for 6 weeks following delivery, and I want to take 14 weeks off. So, lots of blogging from me to look forward to. :)

I had a wonderful weekend with Hank, Mike and my mother-in-law. We had a quiet New Year's celebration at home, and made some good food. Yesterday, the feast of the Epiphany, is one of my favorites. I have a book on patron saint names (that we use to choose baby names) and my name, Tiffany, is listed in there as being derived from the feast of the Epiphany. A stretch, but I like it. Alas, there is no official St. Tiffany.

Yesterday, I was also responsible for the Children's Liturgy of the Word. I was dreading it a bit, since my last foray 2 weeks ago on the 4th Sunday of Advent didn't go as I'd hoped. It wasn't a disaster or anything, but a large group of children came forward, and once we got settled in the back, it quickly became apparent that getting this group to sit still and pay attention would be like trying to get a herd of feral cats to learn the National Anthem. It was a frustrating 20 minutes.

Yesterday, I made sure to pray beforehand, and just felt a gentle urging to relax and enjoy the children. So I did. And it went great. A much smaller group, granted, but I couldn't have asked for a better experience. These are still 4-7 year olds, so their attention does wane, but for the most part, they stayed with me.

I had to love it when we got home, and started putting away our Christmas decorations (at Mike's urging; he'd take them down December 26th if he could, but I insist on waiting until New Years Day, or if possible, the Epiphany; Mike is just very efficient and likes to take care of things as early as possible :)), and Hank announced, "Daddy, it's still Christmas Season, you know." Ah HA! So he WAS paying attention. Makes it all worthwhile.