Our two weeks off of school was plagued with a lot of sickness this year, as it came in waves and hit just about everyone, and me last of all.
Due to the unusual placement of Christmas on a Monday, everyone was faced with the dilemma of how to order their weekend and Christmas mass schedules. We decided to attend the Vigil mass on Saturday and the Christmas Eve vigil later in the day on Sunday.
Our Christmas Eve at home was lovely. We had a reading of the Christmas story and then opened gifts in the morning, followed by lunch with Ana and Jose. Then those who were well enough got dressed in their fancy duds and went to the 4pm mass, while I stayed home with the sickies. Later I got to attend the late Christmas Eve mass, with glorious music from trumpets, strings, pipe organ, and Cathedral Choir, and made it most of the way through before I had to duck out at midnight for my adoration hour, which was all the more sublime when accompanied by Gregorian chant and angelic choral polyphony.
Monday was a quiet day for me and the two boys who were sick. It was so sad to see them just laying on the couch listlessly – I think Efrain basically slept the entire day. We stayed at home while the rest of the crew went down to Sun Lakes to celebrate with Ma and Pa and the East Valley cousins. Because I was not there, I missed out on my “Christmas at Grandma’s” photo collection, but here is our Sunday fun – plus some pix of the unexpected landscaping project brought on by a nosey neighbor who turned us in for various “infractions” and then the inspector discovered our “dirt yard” and said oh no, you can’t have just dirt, you have to have either rocks or grass, so rock the yard we did, with 14 thousand pounds of rocks, and my husband got the whole thing done in two days. He is a MACHINE!:
By New Years Day most everybody was feeling better. We took a ride on the train and went down town, walked around and saw some fun sights, ate at Jimmy John’s for Laurent’s birthday lunch, and rode back again. And to top off the day, Laurent baked the most beautiful cake to share with us. I love her creative culinary skills, and am so thankful for these precious family times!
