In the home stretch. Emmanuel is going to be here soon!

Don't lose focus! Christmas is only 4 days away! Advent is almost over. ALMOST! We still have time to prepare for His arrival. We must, as Christians, stay the course. These may be the toughest 4 days to stay focused on Jesus coming to be with us, but we must. The next 4 days will be full of last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, cleaning houses for family visits, grocery shopping, etc. I mean you name it, and it has to be done before the 25th. Well, during all of this earthly stuff that we need to take care of it will be very difficult to stay focused on the arrival of our salvation. It is in the spiritual realm that we really must prepare for Jesus' coming. 1 way to do this is through song. For my family, we went to a worship concert last night in Slidell, LA. it was the Adore 2097 (paragraph 2097 n the Catechism of the Catholic Church)concert series. More information on this ministry can be found at www.adoreworship.com it is a ministry based out of Houma LA and the concert was headlined by Matt Maher along with Kelly Pease and Josh Blakesley. Their version of O come O come Emmanuel at the beginning of the show was terrific. It really set the tone for the rest of the show, which included not only praise and worship, it also included Adoration. It was something that I wish we could have done as a family at the beginning of Advent, not the end. However, the timing for us was that we were able to go see it towards the end of Advent, and it was well worth it.

Home School is on an official Break for about 2 weeks. when we get back to school on January 5, 2009 my plan is for us to hit the ground running.
But more on that later...

God be with us during this advent. We look forward to the arrival of Jesus. His example of love, peace and justice are examples we strive to achieve in our daily lives, help us to keep reaching for them and to one day achieve them in this world according to your will

Amen.

O' Christmas tree!

12/15/08 is the latest date that we have ever put up our Christmas tree(although, by waitng the tree only cost 19 dollars compared to the 60 or 70 that we usually spend). Usually as I've said in a previous post we have it up a day or two after advent starts we have the tree up. Well this year has been a different story. The "busy-ness" of our lives and actvities has had the month of December flying by with no tree in the house. Yesterday, me and the girls, as part of our homeschoolng, decorated the house and put up the tree. We wanted to Surprise Mary and we did. You can read about her surprise in her blog at www.aliveandcatholic.blogspot.com
Now, the house and hopefully our hearts are open and welcome to the comng of the Messiah, Jesus.

This video is of Elani singing while playing her new baritone ukelele. She has been practing everyday this week, so this is after only 3 days of practice.