The Nativity of our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ

 Hello all, and Merry Christmas! It was a bit of a wild one for us, which I'll describe below, but I feel very grateful to be in this blessed season. I'm back and consistent on my Liturgy of the Hours train, and praying the O Antiphons this year just took my breath away. It is SO BEAUTIFUL. I enjoyed all of my prayer time, and my preparation time for this special feast. You can see both of our Advent wreaths fully lit up here in this post, and the whole family really enjoyed this traditon this year. I have an Advent wreath every year, of course, but having both this year, and having the longer lasting Eastern wreath in the center of our kitchen table really kept that devotion in the forefront of our minds since mid-November. It felt very special to finally light the 6th and final taper candle, and then the large white pillar on Christmas eve and Christmas day. This has become a cherished family tradition that I know we'll keep every single year now, and I'm very grateful for the increased closeness in faith that I feel with the kids now that we've started going to Divine Liturgy.

Our icon corner too has become a family favoite, but I keep the 12 feast icons on the dinner table with us, and of course we got to unveil the Nativity:

Love it. I have this whole set of the 12 Great Feast icons now in this extra small and am excited to continue to build our collection of holy reminders.

So, that's the normal part of our Christmasy celebration. Unfortunately, we could not attend either Divine Liturgy or Mass this weekend, because my part of the world experienced quite an epic blizzard, and we could not venture outside for two straight days, including Christmas eve. This is our house:

😳

It was quite something to behold. We were dispensed from our obligation to attend liturgy, of course, because it simply wasn't safe to be outdoors in those conditions, let alone travel. Christmas day was spent trying to dig out of the driveway so that we could get out in an emergency, but there was a driving ban in our town until the next morning. So it was an unusual Christmas to be sure, but we were safe and together, and that's what matters. We watched the papal Mass on EWTN (thankfully we never lost power!) and enjoyed time together and opening gifts. 

It was an unusual end to Advent and start of the Christmas season, but I'm grateful for everything that we have, and cherishing the quiet prayer time that I was able to indulge in.

How was your Christmas? I'll be back next week to talk more about Christmas season and some new Epiphany preparations! 🙌