Alicia's Wedding

The past few weeks have been jam-packed full of fun. I have so many wonderful photos to share! I have wanted to publish new posts since Christmas, but haven't had the chance. So I will be sharing photos in reverse order, beginning with last night . . .

Last night was the wedding. My darling cousin Alicia was an absolute stunningly gorgeous bride and married her beloved, Seth MacGillivray. The entire day was a wonderful whirlwind beginning with the photographer arriving at our home at 7am! The bridesmaids, Joanna and Alicia all got ready for the big day in our home, which was a true joy and blessing. Jason, the boys and Kahlua all went and spent the morning at my brother Damian's house, making the house a little less chaotic. Veronica stayed with the girls so that I could prepare her for her day as flower girl. I was the maid of honor, making our family twice as honored to be able to be a part of such a special day.

Once we were taking pictures at the DAR Rainier Chapter House on Capitol Hill, I began to get a little nervous about how Veronica would do during the ceremony. We had practiced at home a lot, having Veronica walk down our hallway "aisle." She never really mastered walking and sprinkling flowers at the same time. It would be more walk, stop, sprinkle, walk, stop, sprinkle, etc. She loved practicing and was always disappointed to be done. Veronica would ask, "More practice? Flowers?" When my answer would be no, she would state her favorite, therapeutic, comfort word, "Soon." Lately, my reply has been, "If that makes yourself feel better."

Anyway, yesterday during pictures, I was beginning to see the consequences of skipping Veronica's nap time. She was still doing pretty well, but I felt a bit like I had a time bomb on my hands. Little things were beginning to upset her, such as when I had the audacity of trying to place a piece of orange in her mouth rather than letting her do it herself. When I asked if she was going to walk and put her flowers on the floor, her answer changed from what had been an enthusiastic "yes" to a whiny "noooo." Uh-oh.

But she did wonderfully. Slowly, she toddled down the aisle and dumped a bunch of flowers at the end. Then after being offered a treat, she gladly went to sit with Daddy.

The ceremony was touching and beautiful. My amazingly talented sister, Kristen, gracefully sang My Jesus, I Love Thee. Alicia and Seth were so sweet and touching, and Seth's enthusiasm at the end was unforgettable.

The reception was so much fun. We had never been to a wedding with our children before. Obviously, it makes it less like a date, but we had so much fun together as a family. And guess what? Our kids can dance! Joshua especially surprised me, because as long as their was music playing, he was dancing with moves I had never seen!

Noah spent about half of the time observing. Jason, my dad and I all tried to get him out on the floor, but I think that only made him less willing and he stubbornly went back to the table. But once we left him alone for a while and it was his decision to come out and dance, there was no stopping him. He even joined Joshua, Veronica and many others up on the stage.

Veronica loved the dancing. After the end of each song, she would ask, "More?" She likes to shake her bootie! She also pulled out some thriller moves as well as her ballerina dancing. I am really hoping to have her take ballet lessons next year because I'm pretty sure she would love it, and of course so would I. She even became pretty enamoured with one of the groomsmen, watching him very closely and even letting him spin her around the dance floor. This morning, Veronica has been reminiscing about last night and occasionally calling out "Oooh! Oooh! Party! Party!" I have no idea where they get their love for music, dancing and partying.

As I saw my children, my husband, my parents, my siblings, Joanna, Alicia and Seth and so many others all celebrating together with so much joy, my eyes teared up several times. It was an evening none of us will ever forget and below are many pictures to help us remember.

Alicia and Seth - love, blessings and cheers to you and your lifetime together. May all of the joy from last night spill over abundantly into all of your days.

Perhaps reflecting on what her wedding day will be like . . .

There you get a little peak of Veronica walking down the aisle

 

Joshua in party mode

Reaching the meltdown point very late in the reception.

Noah getting his groove on

My little ballerina

Veronica, with her chosen groomsman

Childlike Faith

Let the Christmas season begin!

What??? you may ask. Like it's totally ended! Well, as a Catholic, we follow the Church's liturgical calendar which means that the season of Advent has finished and that the season of Christmas only just began yesterday and will conclude with the Epiphany on January 13th.

I am no theologian and will not attempt to explain the Church's teaching on this, but I will say that I appreciate the elongated Christmas season. After all of the work and preparations during Advent, I'm so glad there's reason to savor the season a little longer. After all of the fun of the past few weeks, I'm not quite ready to go back to regular life. Furthermore, I'm pooped! Thank goodness I am fully justified in keeping all of the decorations up for a while longer.

I love all of the traditions in our faith that are being passed down to our children. Yesterday Veronica had her first turn of putting the baby Jesus into the manger of our nativity scene as we sang Happy Birthday. I remember having that honor when I was a child. With traditions such as this, I have always looked forward to leading our children in their journey of faith.

What I didn't know is that at the same time, our children would also be leading me through my journey.

A couple of months ago, Joshua and Noah said they would both like to start attending daily Mass. This came as a great surprise to me. And internally, I initially thought something like, "Are you kidding me? You want me to get us all out of the house earlier?! Daily Mass is at 8:00 am!"

Furthermore, I have to admit that there was a time when I thought things like daily Mass were only for religious fanatics or something. It has only been in the last few years that I have developed a real, sincere love for Mass. But did that mean I was ready to get three kids up and ready to attend Mass by myself on weekdays in time for 8 am Mass? I thought one of the perks of homeschooling is that you don't have to get out the door so early!

But how do you tell your kids that? How can you simultaneously teach you children that we love God, that He is our best friend, that Church is our special place to be with God but also that we don't want to go there everyday? I couldn't. And now that we have been going and it is part of our routine, my love for Mass has grown and I am so glad when we go. We don't actually get there every morning. We work with our class schedule, other commitments, our health and state of tiredness, and probably get there three time a week or so.

The children aren't always excited about going. And they surely don't always behave. There was one morning where Jason was working from home and Joshua was especially tired. He knew that there was the option of staying home that day and said that he didn't want to go. I said that he needed to come with us and that if he was really tired and grumpy, he could pray about that in Church. He actually got into the car without any further argument, but was obviously not happy about it.

On our drive to Church, I asked him how he would feel if he was expecting a friend to come over and was really excited about it, but then canceled because they were too tired. He answered that he would be sad. I explained that's how God would feel if we blew off going to Church. His response was, "But sometimes it's haaaaard!"

Yes it is. I certainly have mornings that I don't feel up to it. But I think it's important to teach our kids that we don't give up practicing our faith when it gets hard, as it surely will. If we stop practicing our faith when it's hard, when it's not convenient, when we are too tired, when we are frustrated, irritated, impatient, angry or bored with God, then it may be more difficult to lean on that faith and to feel its strength and support when we need it most. Of course, that's much too difficult to explain to a seven-year-old.

Instead, I continued with the comparison of a friend coming to visit. I explained, "What if that friend was so excited about visiting you that they came even when it was really hard? When they were tired and their car ran out of gas and they had to drive through floods and a dragon tried to blow fire on their car and aliens attacked them? What if they still came after all of that, because they wanted to see you so much? How would you feel?"

"Really good," he replied. And in explaining this to my son, not only did he understand a little more, but so did I. Through my children's questions, they are often leading me.

Sometimes faith is hard. But with children, it's often pretty easy. Most mornings when I dress Veronica, she asks, "Church? Church?" She can't wait till the next time we get to go.

I asked the children on Christmas Eve if their hearts were ready for Jesus to come. Had they made room in their hearts for Jesus this Advent? Noah answered, "Jesus is already in our hearts." Well, yes. Yes he is.

Not only do my children provide inspiration when it comes to our faith, but even more often they provide humor. Each time I receive Communion with Veronica in my arms, she curiously asks, "Cracker?"

Veronica knows we are supposed to be quiet in Church, although this undoubtedly doesn't mean that she always is. At Christmas Eve Mass, when everyone stood and began to pray the Apostles' Creed, she glared at everyone, mortified that we were all talking, and whispered indignantly, "Shh! Stop it! Shh! Stop it!"

And when we finished praying the Our Father, she applauded and cheered.We all laughed, but really, it makes a whole lot of sense to cheer after that prayer.

If only we all had such childlike faith.

Yuletide 2012

Another fabulous Christmas. So many blessings. These pictures describe better than I can, each worth at least a thousand words.

Merry Christmas!