A partridge in a pear tree

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.  It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.  For example, the partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.  The two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments, and the three French hens stood for faith, hope, and love.

However, the one that caught my attention were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.  These "fruits" are very bountiful indeed!  This year, as a Christmas gift, I will be teaching our children about these fruits and how to apply them as best they can.  A gift of love.  Hopefully they will one day reap the rewards!

From Grace I learn

Here is my little angel Grace, posing just before her ballet recital.  Precious, yes?  This precious one just made me think.

Grace was cuddled up on the couch and asked me to bring her her water bottle from her room.  I was in the kitchen at the time and said, "You can get it."

Grace said, "How come you always say that?  You can get it."

Me, "Because you can get it and usually I'm doing other things.  Why do I need to get it for you?"

Grace, "Because it's the nice thing to do and God wants us to do nice things for each other."

Me, "Yes, he does.  Here you go."

Whew.  From a four year old.  One might think she was  being manipulative, but she's not.  She's Grace, with lots of love in her heart, and some leftover even.

Isn't it amazing when we can learn the most simple, and often most important lessons, from our children?

Let in snow!

One of the reasons I love living in Colorado is the fact that we have four definitive seasons.  While Denver is essentially a desert in the summer, it is also fairly dry throughout the winter.  Hot and dry OR cold and dry.  Yes, even the snow can be dry.

But we hadn't had snow this season, until now.  The snow started right at rush hour, of course, but since we didn't have anywhere to go it as perfect.  The girls and I watched the snow fall through the Christmas lights and it was just beautiful.   

In the morning we put on our snow gear and hiked to school through six whole inches of snow.     Hank wore his fleece one piece and into the backpack he went.  Grace had on her full snow suit. Emma wore big boots, down jacket, and her backpack.  Ready for school!

While walking to school we got a couple funny looks, some smiles, and everyone drove slow to make sure they didn't slide into us.  A first for 20MPH!   (now we live three blocks from school and I simply refuse to drive.  just plan silly to load everyone in the car for such a short distance AND we are teaching our children the joy of being outside and caring for our planet, darn it!)  

We were ALL happy for the fresh snow.

My snowmen!