Advent Happenings

Making our Christ candle.  Very simple rub-ons that I picked up at Michael's at last year's post Christmas sale.

Inspired by Jessica's post from last year, I created an O'Antiphon's house of our own.  She so very sweetly shared the document she used for her house and I was well on my way :)

Some purple spray paint left from Lent, some gold from Easter and a trip to Michael's and I was all set.  They didn't have any blocks in the size I needed, so we got one large block and hubby cut them down to size for me.

Also inspired by Jessica, we celebrated the O'Antiphon days with their own special activity.  Each day was a hit and the kids were so excited about the next day.  This is definitely a tradition that we'll be keeping around here!

December 17th ~ O Wisdom ~ We gave the kids each a book.  Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to catch them...but they got books about Epiphany

December 18th~O Adonai~ Gingerbread house kit!  The boys and their daddy had a blast putting it together.  I think they did a rather nice job for their first time :)

December 19th~O Root of Jesse~ I had planned on making a stew or soup of some kind including root veggies, but I ran out of time.  So I settled with reading The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola.  BTW...did you hear his good news???  Another good idea would be these cupcakes.

December 20th ~ O Key of David ~ Key lime pie, of course!  I think I may need to find something else because the boys weren't too into this pie. :(

December 21st ~ O Dayspring ~ We went for a Christmas light drive.  Other ideas.

December 22nd ~ O King ~ the plan was to make crowns or crown shaped sugar cookies.  Notice I said "the plan"...

December 23rd ~ O Emmanuel ~ We didn't really do anything for this.  But I'm in love with this chocolate Nativity set Jessica made.  Of course she has other wonderful ideas to go along with O Antiphons too :)

Of course we had our Advent wreath, Jesse Tree, and other countdown calendars as well as our Nativity set.  (I see that I neglected to post pictures of the completed donkey...)

When we rearranged the house we neglected to leave space for the Christmas tree :(  So we searched and procrastinated. Finally we decided to put it in the corner of the dining area.  You can see a bit of it in the picture above.  There was no room for the angel though, so she resided on top of one of the bookcases looking over the whole room.

O Wisdom-O Sapientia

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Come, O divine Wisdom, give us the true knowledge and the taste for what is  eternal and divine. Inspire us with a thirst for God's holy will, help us seek God's guidance and direction, enlighten us in the teachings of the holy gospel, make us submissive to Thy holy Church. Strengthen us in the forgetfulness of self, and help us to resign ourselves to a position of obscurity if that be Thy holy will. Detach our hearts from resurgent pride. Give us wisdom that we may understand that "but one thing is necessary" (Luke 10:42). "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26.) The Holy Spirit would have us know that one degree of grace is worth more than all worldly possessions.

~from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B

found here