Merry Christmas

Last night was awesome! I went to the 5:30 Children's Mass (it started at 5:15 with the Christmas play which Sean was in) and sat with Patti and her family. After Mass I walked with Patti to her car and we gave each other the presents we bought. She got me Mistletoe Penguins (which are so adorable)! The card she got me and what she wrote inside really touched me! I'm thankful for such wonderful friends and people God has brought in my life! :)

I then went home for dinner and had to leave again for choir practice at 11 pm because we sang for Christmas Lessons and Carols & then the midnight Mass. Before practice Esther got in my car when she arrived and then we exchanged gifts. She got me a book called "Only One You".


My parents and brother went to the midnight Mass (my mom ended up getting a few pictures afterwards) so I introduced my brother to Diane and Esther...he also met Ruth (finally). :)

After Mass (1)


After Mass (2)


After Mass (3)


Today was a great Christmas -nice and relaxing with my parents and Luke. Here are some pictures:

I got a dachshund puppy calender


I got Dad this coffee maker


Luke and Dad talking

Mom and Luke (don't ask)


This is what Luke got for Mom


Last night Leslie and Kayla came over for dinner and then we watched a movie together (Fred Clause). It was so nice to see them both! I hadn't seen them in so long. (It's hard to believe Kayla is already 17...seems like yesterday my mom was babysitting her at 4 yrs. old).

Me and Kayla


Me, Leslie, and Kayla


Me, Kayla, Mom, and Leslie

Me, Kayla, Dad, and Leslie

Now I leave you with this fun picture of me and my dad (dad was an elf and I'm a reindeer)

Christmas Decorations at Q of P

Yesterday I helped Carol, Patti, Cathy, and Cathy's daughter prepare meals for some homebound people in our parish.Today was a busy day for me too! Carol, Patti, and I finished the preparation of the meals and organized them to deliver to the homes. Sean and I went with Carol to deliver to three homes while Patti went to deliver on her own since she was heading to finish Christmas shopping for Sean after.After delivering the meals, Carol dropped us off at the church. Since I had Sean with me still (since Patti wasn't done yet) I decided to take him to Walmart with me so I could get my dad's present. After going to Walmart we headed back to the Church where Patti met up with us. Since it was after 6 and we were late for starting the Christmas decorating Patti asked me to take Sean with me to their house to take the dogs out and pick up the ribbon, bows, and a few other items. When we got back we helped finish the decorating.

Here is how the Church looks


Wreath (Patti made the bow)


Manger Scene

Weekend and Lights

So this weekend was quite fun and interesting.
On Friday Ruth and I met at the church to pick Sean up from school. Our original plans were to take him to his house to get sweat pants and let the dogs out before we headed to his game.
Sean met us when he got out of school and Ruth told us just to go to his house and she'd finish up what she was doing in the church library. She also mentioned that she wasn't feeling so great (poor thing) and that she'd probably just drop us off and head back home.
Our plans changed after that. Patti called when we were heading back to the church and Sean told her that Ruth wasn't feeling good and was just going to drop us off so Patti told us to tell Ruth she didn't have to take us and that instead I'd go to her office and she'd drive there.
On our way back from the game we saw a bunch of lights at Newton Park and thought maybe it was like a trail of lights to drive through. We ended up parking in the parking lot and walking around. There was a concession stand so we went up to where we saw people in there - we got free hot chocolate which was yummy =)
They told us to follow the path and it would lead us to Santa's Cabin. I gotta say it was quite an adventurous night!Saturday I went to Sean's game and went to Martins with Patti and Sean afterwards. Then we came back to the church so Patti could arrange the flowers in a vase. While she was doing that I played a couple songs on the piano and then Sean and I played some b-ball. After that we went to their house and I helped decorate the tree.
Last night Ruth and I went to Vespers at 5 and then went to pick Patti and Sean up so we could go to Windingbrook and see the lights - that was pretty fun. After seeing the lights we went to eat and talked until 10:15ish. It was fun tho!

Here is the tree - pretty cool if you ask me

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the eleventh century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the eighteenth century it became a feast of the universal Church.
In 1854 Pius IX gave the infallible statement: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless—either at her conception or throughout her life. This is one of the Church teachings that arose more from the piety of the faithful than from the insights of brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas could not see theological justification for this teaching.

Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology. They point out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleansed from original sin after birth. In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.In Luke 1:28 the angel Gabriel, speaking on God’s behalf, addresses Mary as “full of grace” (or “highly favored”). In that context this phrase means that Mary is receiving all the special divine help necessary for the task ahead. However, the Church grows in understanding with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit led the Church, especially non-theologians, to the insight that Mary had to be the most perfect work of God next to the Incarnation. Or rather, Mary’s intimate association with the Incarnation called for the special involvement of God in Mary’s whole life. The logic of piety helped God’s people to believe that Mary was full of grace and free of sin from the first moment of her existence. Moreover, this great privilege of Mary is the highlight of all that God has done in Jesus. Rightly understood, the incomparable holiness of Mary shows forth the incomparable goodness of God.

“[Mary] gave to the world the Life that renews all things, and she was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role. “It is no wonder, then, that the usage prevailed among the holy Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, fashioned by the Holy Spirit into a kind of new substance and new creature. Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the splendors of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is, on God’s command, greeted by an angel messenger as ‘full of grace’ (cf. Luke 1:28). To the heavenly messenger she replies: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, bit done to me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38)” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 56).