St. Joseph's Day (late post)

Last month we enjoyed celebrating the feast day of St. Joseph. We are hoping that next year we can try our first altar and participate in the many beautiful St. Joseph Altar traditions. The girls enjoyed coloring the St. Joseph the Worker sheet and together we made St. Joseph staff cookies. We used the same recipe, but instead of red for the candy canes we decided to use purple since it was Lent. They were delicious!!

Celebrating the Baptism of the Lord

As the girls are getting older, we are trying harder to incorporate and celebrate the liturgical year in our home. Not only to increase their knowledge of our faith, but also to encourage them to live it, enjoy it, and celebrate it!! Their young ages still limit the amount of information you can give them or activities you can do, but is allowing me to start forming traditions and gather ideas for the next years!! Here are some things we enjoyed yesterday to help us remember this special day all day long!!

Angel enjoyed coloring THIS PAGE of Jesus being Baptized:

We all enjoyed working this Baptism Crossword Puzzle...and even got stumped on how to spell anoint or annoint....hehe

(thanks Jessica for the links for these activities)

Since the Christian symbol for Baptism is a shell, I bought some fun shell necklaces to wear (although the guys opted out of this)...decorated the table with shells...and made this yummy Nacho Stuffed Shell recipe for dinner (with Marmee and Alli). The recipe definitely is a keeper and we garnished with sour cream, salsa, cheese and fresh avocados. For dessert, I made Christ's Diapers and they were yummy and MAKE A LOT!! It was an interesting dough that I have never done before...so if you like to knead, try it out. It was amusing asking people if they wanted to eat Christ's diapers...Angel was a little confused!! But, most of them did look like a diaper...except for the ones that exploded when dropped in the fryer.

And since this day is a good time to also talk about and remember our own Baptisms...I made the centerpiece of the table be Angel's, Emma's and my baptismal candle. (Jason's is still in VA...note to self we need to get!). (see picture above of table). It looked really beautiful...and I just used an advent candle holder for it. I also made books for Angel's baptism and Emma's baptism, so it is always fun to pull those out and look at them as well.

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Happy Feast Day Angelica Rose!

Today is the feast day of Saint Rose of Lima. I love Maria's idea of celebrating the children's feast days. Since we are already trying to celebrate the Baptism Day this sounds like a wonderful tradition to add and could make a really beautiful way of learning and contemplating on the saint's life every year. I love this quote:

“Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.” ~ St. Rose of Lima