Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: for the Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous: but in everything by prayer let your petitions be made known to God. (Psalm) Lord, Thou hast blest Thy land: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. Gloria Patri...
Just as last year, John and I are trying to determine what sort of traditions we want to start for important holidays such as Christmas, incorporating some from each side of our families, and coming up with some of our own. This year, we heard of people setting up their Christmas tree on the first Sunday of Advent, but only decorating it with purple ornaments. Then on Gaudete Sunday, adding pink (or rose, whichever is your preference) to the mix, and finally decorating the tree in all its glory Christmas Eve. We liked the idea, and so up until now we've only had purple ribbon on the tree. To honor my family's tradition, we decided to decorate the tree, without lights, today. We'll wait to light the tree until Christmas Eve night. After all the ornaments were on, we realized that we had a bouquet of pink roses from my shower Friday night. We decided to add them, and from now on, perhaps we'll add pink roses every Gaudete Sunday.
We sampled the fruits of all our cookie baking after Divine Liturgy this morning. But don't worry, the rest are packed safely away until Christmas!
I think Maria had more fun decorating the tree this year.
If you look very carefully, you can see roses peeking out between the branches.
3 comments:
Great photos the past few days! I eapecially love the one of John and the "Nana Cookies", the one of KT making chocolate chip, and the one of Maria hanging an ornament (she's growing up!)
Decorating the tree in stages is exactly what we have started doing this year...we don't want to be sick of looking at the tree by the time Christmas comes along anymore.
Some of the Eastern Churches celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation on January 6. By then, you should be able to find a tree already decorated out on the curb for free! And you wouldn't have to look at it for long.
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