7 quick takes

 1 - Once again I have to say 'thank you' to Pandora for introducing me to new music.  Thank you!

2 - I made the Santa Lucia bun recipe that Grace shared with us yesterday on the Advent series.  Yum-o.  Everyone in the family loved them.  I ran out of all purpose flour and had to use 1 and 1/2 cups wheat flour and they were still good!  You'll want to Pin that recipe for next year, friends!

3 - So I don't know what you're doing this weekend but Travis and I have an afternoon date with The Hobbit.  WooooHooooo!

4 - Did you watch Minor Revisions last night?  Ahhh - loved it like the Jen fan that I am!  I suspect there will now be a bunch of Catholic women rockin' the low side pony just like Jennifer did at the coffee shop.  While watching it I kept wishing my brother and sister-in-law, fallen away Catholics who now attend a megachurch that literally had ribbon dancers at their Easter service - oh sorry, I got off on a tangent there, didn't I?  Anyways, I kept wishing they were watching it with me.  So many of the things Jen and Joe said (about looking for a church they wanted vs. considering if there was a church God wanted them to join) and Jen and her dad discussed about their conversion were great points to consider.  I would love to hear how my brother and his wife would answer those questions in light of the Fulwilers' commentary.

5 - Did you celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe?  Inspired by Lisa's post about Our Lady and the feast we did, though we kinda spread it out.  Tuesday we read the book The Lady of Guadalupe, which is a book I highly recommend.  The book is a little longish but it does an excellent job of telling the story of OLOG so I didn't have to.

Then we made paper bag tilmas, which the kids looooved.  They were really proud of them and didn't mind wearing them.  L even went back and colored roses on hers and then acted out the story, having me be Our Lady and Travis be the bishop.

We had tacos and chips and guacamole for supper.  We were going to have crispas and Mexican hot cocoa for dessert but I ended up not feeling well and so we just called it a night.

So we had crispas for breakfast today.  :)

6 - Did you notice how JF isn't wearing pants in the above picture?  That happens a lot here.  JF is always taking off his pants.  Ben is always taking off his shoes and socks.  And then there's L, who is usually dressed in layers, sitting under a blanket.

7 - Thursday was the best day the kids and I have had for a long, long time.  We played a matching game, worked on puzzles together, read books, played with trains, made the St. Lucy rolls, did our Jesse Tree ornament and prayers.  I think I only became upset once and no one peed on the carpet.

I'm pretty sure the secret to the success was that I never showered, changed out of my pj's or brushed my hair or teeth.  Really, that was the only thing that was different than every other day but for some reason it made a difference.  I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon.

7.5 - Make sure you check out Lisa Schmidt's contribution to the Advent series: A Perpetual State of Advent.  It's all about low key living and it was a great read during this crazy time of year.

And thanks to Jen for always hosting!