Joseph, Keeper of the King Book Review
Brand new release! The latest from Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman… Highly recommend this excellent new picture book about St. Joseph! In addition to Amazon, you can also purchase it directly from St.Paul Center here.
In Joseph’s arms Christ was secure
Kept safe from harm, and ever sure.
In Joseph’s arms Christ did mature
And see the Father’s face.
“The lyrical prose in Joseph, Keeper of the King and poignant illustrations bring St. Joseph to life and bear a message of love, trust, and faithfulness. Unveiling the Old Testament figures who paved the way for St. Joseph, we follow the story of Scripture to see the design of God’s plan for Jesus’s protector and earthly guide. Through his betrothal to Mary to the birth of Jesus and beyond, St. Joseph offered his heart to Our Lord. It is that same heart that he offers to each and every one of us, and Joseph, Keeper of the King makes this offer accessible to children of all ages. Young and old alike will be consoled, encouraged, and inspired by Joseph, Keeper of the King.” – Read more over at St. Paul Center
I couldn’t get through reading this beautiful book to my little girls without tearing up… My eyes were already full of tears, while reading the page pictured above, and by the time I turned to the next page my voice completely caught. Both girls looked up at me, leaned over to hug me, and then said, “Mommy, maybe we should take a picture of you crying?!?”
When all is dark and you feel fear,
Christ’s dear daddy is ever near.
When all is dark and you’re in tears,
Just call his holy name.
It really is such a special book! The writing is absolutely lovely and the illustrations are beautiful and inspiring. This is definitely one worth adding to your collection — especially for the feasts of St. Joseph, but also for other feast days throughout the year like the upcoming feast of the Annunciation and even for the Advent and Christmas season!
The girls also insisted that I share each of their favorite illustrations from the book:
Order a copy now to tuck into an Easter Basket so you’ll have it for the upcoming feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st!
Joseph, Keeper of the King by Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman is available from Amazon or from St.Paul Center here.
You can also find more pictures from this year’s St. Joseph Altar here or scroll through all past posts here.
St. Joseph Altar and New Books
The St. Joseph Altar is an old tradition from Sicily. There are three tiers to the altar, representing the Trinity and the three members of the Holy Family; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Usually a statue or picture of St. Joseph is placed on the top tier. You can visit The Virtual St. Joseph Altar to learn more about its history.
The breads and pastries found on the St. Joseph altar are usually shaped as all sorts of symbols. The Lily, Ladder, Hammer, Nail, Saw, Sandals, Cane or Staff, are all symbols for St. Joseph. Other symbols include the cross, palm, grapes, wreaths, and twists for Our Lord. Defrost a bag of frozen dinner rolls and your children will have so much fun shaping symbols with the dough! Bake the finished creations and place on your own St. Joseph Altar!
We made our very first (paper) St. Joseph Altar back in 2009, in 2010 we made our first Symbolic Shapes out of bread dough on the feast of St. Joseph and put together our very first (real food) St. Joseph Altar at home. You can scroll through others from over the years here!
Our four youngest have been sick this past week with a stomach bug but finally felt up to eating a little bit today and the rolls, a little fruit, fish, and pasta (just one pound with leftovers!) were perfect. The treats were barely touched but I’m sure they will enjoy them on Sunday! It was such an enjoyable afternoon.
Traditional Breads in Symbolic Shapes
The breads found on the St. Joseph altar are usually shaped as all sorts of symbols. The Lily, Ladder, Hammer, Nail, Saw, Sandals, Cane or Staff, are all symbols for St. Joseph. Other symbols include the cross, palm, grapes, wreaths, and twists for Our Lord.
This year our oldest daughter made some dough from scratch (rather than our usual frozen rolls) and it turned out amazing. She used this recipe for Soft Dinner Rolls from Sally’s Baking.
Inspiration from both Joseph, Keeper of the King and Giovanni and the Fava Beans: The Story of the St. Joseph Altar! Highly recommend both of these great picture books.
Mudica (Breadcrumbs) with Pasta and Fish
Breadcrumbs represent St. Joseph the Carpenter’s sawdust and are served over pasta.
The twelve fish represent the twelve apostles or the miracle of loaves and fishes.
Traditional Italian Treats & Drinks
Cream Puffs and Cannoli
Symbolic Fig Pastry Cookies – Usually these shaped Pastries are inedible and symbolize the monstrance, chalice, cross, dove, lambs, fish, bible, hearts, etc.
Wine and Fruit – This is a reminder of the vineyards and orchards of Sicily.
New Picture Books for St. Joseph’s Feast Days
Brand new release! The latest from Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman… Highly recommend this excellent new picture book about St. Joseph! In addition to Amazon, you can also purchase it directly from St.Paul Center here.
Giovanni and the Fava Beans: The Story of the St. Joseph Altar
This was a new addition to our book collection in 2024. Also available directly from Word on Fire. Love it!
*Affiliate links to Amazon and Word on Fire. Thank you!
Updated to add the link to my affiliate link to Sophia Institute Press where you can find The Illustrated Liturgical Year Calendar. For Lent and Easter I trim the off the bottom of the first Lent and Easter calendars and glue it to the second calendar to make it one large calendar for the whole season. For more calendar ideas you can find The Lenten Season in Our Catholic Home in the archives.
A Parent’s Prayer to St. Joseph
O glorious St. Joseph, to you God committed the care of His only begotten Son amid the many dangers of this world. We come to you and ask you to take under your special protection the children God has given us. Through holy baptism they became children of God and members of His holy Church. We consecrate them to you today, that through this consecration they may become your foster children. Guard them, guide their steps in life, form their hearts after the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
St. Joseph, who felt the tribulation and worry of a parent when the child Jesus was lost, protect our dear children for time and eternity. May you be their father and counsellor. Let them, like Jesus, grow in age as well as in wisdom and grace before God and men. Preserve them from the corruption of his world, and give us the grace one day to be united with them in Heaven forever. Amen.
“Though thou hast recourse to many saints as thine intercessors, go specially to St. Joseph, for he has great power with God.”
– St. Teresa of Avila
Ringing in the New Year with an Engagement Party
(cropped the rest of the details off the bottom of the invite I sent out)
On New Year’s Eve, we hosted an engagement party for our daughter Catherine and her fiancé, Robert. There couldn’t have been a sweeter way to end the year!
I had hoped to share this post sooner… I always do… But those of you’ve who have been around here long enough have probably noticed my pattern in recent years. I’m always on a roll (ie: I don’t sleep much!) from All Saints’ Day through Advent each year… and then our late December birthdays hit (this year it was Spider-Man and Jurassic World themes), then it’s all of the last-minute Christmas prep (with Flu A mixed in this year), Christmas, immediately followed by catching up at work (including all the year-end bookkeeping and tax prep at work) and finalizing plans for our spring homeschooling semester squeezed in there somewhere… I completely run out of steam enough hours in the day so I quietly (and unintentionally!) disappear from the internet.
January has somehow already come and gone, but I’m determined to not let it become another “see you again in May” year here on the blog… Which would be unlikely anyway, with our daughter’s wedding scheduled for May 30th!!!
So, before any more time slips away, I want to go back and share some pictures from New Year’s Eve! What you won’t see in the pictures is that I rotated a rib that morning (soooo painful – most likely from the assisted chin ups at my Lift appointment the day before 🤦🏻♀️ I could barely move my arms – still recovering) but thankfully I had many willing helpers at home and I was able to just direct most of the final preparations for our party that evening! It’s definitely a bittersweet joy as we watch our daughter get closer to her next chapter. We are so happy for them! It was such a fun evening, the perfect way to begin a brand new year!
Eight of our nine kids were able to be home. Our oldest son had just been home for Thanksgiving (to see off his uncle, thanks to an understanding supervisor!) but wasn’t able to be here for Christmas this year. Hopefully in future years, as he moves up the ranks in seniority, we will get to have him home for the holidays more often. We missed him! Thankfully everyone else was able to be home and we squeezed in the party, just before our 23 year old had to return to Oregon and our college kids flew back to California and North Dakota. Whew! I can’t wait till they are all home for the wedding in May!
Party Prep
The Menu
- Bouquet Charcuterie Board
- Caprese Skewers/Wreath Board
- Meatballs in Crock Pot
- Hot Artichoke & Spinach Dip with Baguette Slices
- Baked Brie
- Cowboy Caviar with Chips
- Deviled Eggs garnished with Parsley & Pomegranate Seeds
- Chocolate Heart Bundt Cake (pan here)
- Praline Pecan Cheesecake (recipe here)
- Chocolate Strawberries
- Sweet Bites: Chocolate & Coffee “Opera Cake”, Raspberry “Macaron aux Framboises” Cake and Caramel & Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Dream Italian Dessert Cups
- Chocolate Truffles
- European Cookies
- Champagne
- Sparkling Cider
- Decaf Coffee, Tea & Cocoa
More Pictures from the Party!
Please keep them in your prayers!
Prayer for Couples Preparing for Marriage
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, look upon those preparing for marriage. Send the Holy Spirit to open their hearts to your love so that, with honesty and selflessness, they may be strengthened to receive the Father’s sacred design. Through their spousal love, may they bear witness to your abiding faithfulness. Obtain for them the grace to live the gift of fertility and to reject all that contradicts it. May they honor the Creator’s plan that they be “one flesh” for the “whole of life,” and become generous stewards of new life. Make them and all married couples beautiful witnesses of faithfulness and harmony to renew the face of the earth. Amen.
I hope your new year is off to a very blessed start!
Thankful, Grateful, Blessed
“Why is everyone always leaving?!” — That was a question one of my little girls asked, through the tears streaming down her face, last New Year’s…
Her childhood, filled with young adult siblings who are always coming and going, is so very different from what life looked like for those older kids of ours. Despite all the blessings, and the fun visits, the goodbyes are always really, really hard.
I’m right there with her, especially this year…. So many funerals, including my little brother Scott 💔… and my husband’s brother Fr. Terrence Gordon just a couple years before, plus a couple more of our children moving for jobs or going to college out of state… Even the beautiful goodbyes of friends (and a niece/cousin) entering cloistered religious life these past years have had their own kind of heartache. So many goodbyes…
At the end of October, I even joked about how I “throw murder mystery parties for young adults entering Carmel!” (Three over the past few years.) I had absolutely no idea we’d be finding out the very next day that yet another family member would be entering too… 😭❤️🙏🏻
It hadn’t been shared publicly yet, so I couldn’t say anything to anyone, but we immediately started scrambling trying to find ways to get all our children home for one final visit with Fr. D. Gordon. We were very blessed to have him here from November 24th to December 2nd for one last visit and we loved every minute!
We are so grateful and thankful for the years we got to be Father D. Gordon’s parishioners in North Idaho from 2018-2023 and have really missed him since his transfer. He was the best man at our wedding. He gave our oldest son (who is also his Godson) his First Confession and First Holy Communion at his very First Mass the day after his Ordination to the Priesthood. (First Blessing pictures here.) He also gave First Holy Communion to five more of our children (here, here and here… oops look like I never blogged the last two). He baptized our youngest son (Churching of Women for me ) and youngest daughter (looks like hers was never blogged either) and confirmed one of our daughters and one of our sons too… We had hoped more First Holy Communions and weddings would be coming up next and we will dearly miss him at those upcoming sacraments.
Our older kids all managed to make it home for different lengths of time (depending on flights, college schedules, rides, and begging/coordinating with supervisors) but we were all together for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Memories I will absolutely treasure forever! 🥰
The Discalced Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
He entered the Discalced Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on December 18th. Please remember Father in your prayers!🌹
The Great O Antiphons, The Golden Nights
The Great O Antiphons, The Golden Nights + Giveaway
Ever since our oldest children were very little, we have been implementing an old monastic custom in our home by providing special treats, representing each of the “O Antiphons” on the days leading up to Christmas. The O Antiphon prayers begin on December 17th and end on the 23rd, which is the last Vespers of Advent, since the evening prayer on the 24th is the Vigil of Christmas.
The Benedictine monks arranged these antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – the Latin words ero cras are formed, meaning, “Tomorrow, I will come.” Therefore, the Lord Jesus, whose coming we have prepared for in Advent and whom we have addressed in these seven Messianic titles, now speaks to us, “Tomorrow, I will come.” So the “O Antiphons” not only bring intensity to our Advent preparation, but bring it to a joyful conclusion.
Each night, following our family rosary, we pray the O Antiphon for the day, sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, which was inspired by this ancient tradition, and then give the children a special treat.
The “treats” have varied from year to year. Some years it has been little gifts or activities for the family, some years it is all food related, and some years it is a mix of both, depending on our schedule and budget. It doesn’t need to cost much or even anything at all! Be creative!
You can find my 2010 post focusing on food ideas over on my other blog, Catholic Cuisine, here.
Sometimes the treats are a bit of a stretch, but my goal is try and find gifts that will either help increase our faith (Catechism books, holy family, saints, prayer, etc) or encourage family time (games, puzzles, going to look at Christmas lights, etc). You can find some of our past O Antiphon treats by scrolling through the archives and visiting Catholic Cuisine.
Our family loves this tradition. It is such a fun way to teach the children about these beautiful prayers of the church and also increase their excitement as Christmas gets closer.
Here are more details on our O Antiphon House and Blocks.
In case you are looking for some inspiration, I’ve listed some of the treats I’ve given my family over the years (along with my picks for this year)… Special food ideas, activities and gifts (or you can simply decorate chocolate coins!) for each of the O Antiphons can be found below.
Once again I am hosting an O ANTIPHON GIVEAWAY! Seven lucky visitors here at Shower of Roses will receive gifts this year! Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the details and to enter.
O Sapientia (O Wisdom) – December 17th
Since the symbol for wisdom is a book, I usually choose a new Catholic book for our family. This year it is the beautiful new book The Story of All Stories: A Story Bible for Young Catholics by Emily Stimpson Chapman. Available directly from Word on Fire (20% off sitewide at the moment) or from Amazon here.
O Wisdom Ideas from Over the Years:
- Bible Cookies or Bible Candies
- Brain Food – Dark Chocolate, Deviled Eggs, Theo Christmas Bar, HU Chocolate.. or my current Keto fave Lily’s.
- Catholic Coffee or Patris Roasting Co. would also be great!
- Play a Trivia Game (The Purgative Way, Christmas Trivia, Catholic Trivia, Cranium)
- Play SaintCards, Saint Memory, or Catholic Quiz games
- Pray and Play ABC Puzzle from Saintly Heart (for the little ones!)
- Outmatched (now discontinued) from Institute for Excellence in Writing – One year I went with a game focusing on the time period most of our children were studying.
- Bookmarks or Holy Cards
- Family Prayer Book, Catechism, or other Book – The Christmas Book, The Catechism in Pictures with review here, Jesus Make Me Worthy, My Catholic Faith, A Catholic Child’s Picture Dictionary, Around the Year: Once Upon a Time Saints, etc… The possibilities are endless.
- Books including The Golden Key, as well as An Alphabet of the Altar, The Wonder Story and The Wonder Days from St. Augustine Academy Press.
- More books including: The Holy Bible Adapted for Young Readers for the kids and Building a Wholesome Family in a Broken World: Habsburg Lessons from the Centuries for Sean from Sophia Institute Press (and available on Amazon as well here and here).
O Wisdom that comest out of the mouth of the Most High, that reachest from one end to another, and orderest all things mightily and sweetly, come to teach us the way of prudence!
December 18th – O Adonai (O Lord)
We love puzzles during Advent. This treat is one more new Christmas puzzle to start!
I ordered this puzzle from Puzzledy along with a few others during a sale.
In the past we would always emphasize the word “house” in this Antiphon, and have made our Gingerbread Houses or Gingerbread Cookies on this night. Now that we have two birthdays this week (and two birthday cakes to bake and decorate!) we usually wait until New Year’s Eve to decorated Gingerbread Houses.
O Adonai Ideas from Over the Years:
- Pull out the Smore’s Maker or light a bonfire and roast marshmallows, in reference to “Moses in the burning bush”
- Cookies made with this Gingerbread House Cookie Cutter or these cute 3-D Mini Gingerbread House Cookie Cutter made by Sweet Creations, emphasizing the word “house”
- Decorate Gingerbread Houses (my girls surprised me with this pan one year)
- Ten Commandment Cookies
- Make a Ten Commandments Lap Book
- Discuss the various names for Our Lady, including House of Gold! The Virgin Mary Around the World or any of the Marian dolls (Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Czestochowa, Our Lady of China, Our Lady of Vailankanni, etc) would be perfect.
- House of God: The Holy Mass: On Earth as it is in Heaven
- Wooden Mass Set from Shining Light Dolls (Save an extra 10% with SHOWEROFROSESBLOG)
- Father Leopold Lego Set or Architecture Blocks would also tie in nicely.
- Notre Dame 3-D Church Puzzle or Midnight Mass Puzzle
O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel, Who didst appear unto Moses in the burning bush, and gavest him the law in Sinai, come to redeem us with an outstretched arm!
December 19th – O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
Our 2025 Family Ornament will be wrapped up for the 19th!
O Root of Jesse Ideas from Over the Years:
- Root Beer Floats
- Bake a Carrot Cake
- Roasted Root Vegetable, Hearty Healing Beef Stew or Hamburger Stew… Yum!
- Old Fashioned Root Beer Drops
- Assemble and hang a new family ornament. One year we also got this beautiful Poinsettia Ornament.
- Purchase a Christmas Poinsettia (In the past we have also incorporated other Poinsettias: 12 Red Glitter Poinsettia Ornaments, Miracle of the Poinsettia, or Poinsettia Cupcakes)
- Play some sort of Gardening or Nature Game as a Family (perhaps Grow a Garden Matching Game, Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game, Gathering a Garden, or The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game!)
- Kid’s Vegetable Garden Seed Collection from St. Clare’s Heirloom Seeds
- Make a Root of Jesse Ornament
- One year I had a set of our family blocks made by Naturally Catholic!
- Bonus: You could even have a Jesse Tea! From Jesse, the shepherd, to Jesus, the Good Shepherd… Shepherds tie in nicely!
- Shepherd and Angel playlet from Shining Light Dolls
- Shepherd Puzzle Set made by Naturally Catholic
- Read The Shepherd at the Crib and The Cross
O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people, at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths, Whom the Gentiles shall seek, come to deliver us, do not tarry.
December 20th – O Clavis David (O Key of David)
As St. Padre Pio, said: “Prayer is the best weapon we have. It is a key opening God’s Heart.”
Once again we are planning to take our children to Mass or Adoration. After dinner it’ll be Key Lime Pie and unwrapping Illustrated Classic Christmas Carols from TAN Books! Also available at Amazon here.
You can find some additional photos in this year’s St. Nick post.
O Key of David Ideas from Over the Years:
- Key Lime Pie
- Special drink (Sparkling cider!) with dinner or for a family game night. Since this is initially a monastic tradition, and on this night, the monk in charge of the wine cellar would provide a special bottle of wine.
- Surprise the family with tickets (“key”) to something local – Christmas play, the Nutcracker, etc. One year I took our older children to see A Christmas Carol at the theatre.
- Key Puzzle/Brainteaser
- Play Escape from Colditz and “liberate the prisoner from the prison”.
- Tiny Saints Key Hooks – One year I purchased a couple key hook rails to use to hang our Rosaries. You can see them in our old home in this post.
- Incorporate Music “keys” with Catholic Songs for Children CD, Sheet Music Book or Children’s First Chants book!
- Advent At Ephesus or Caroling at Ephesus
O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel, that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth, come to liberate the prisoner from the prison, and them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death.
December 21st – O Oriens (O Dayspring)
We’ll once again make hot cocoa and pile in the car to go look at Christmas lights downtown weather permitting!
The little girls will also get to unwrap this beautiful and inspiring new release from Sophia Institute Press: This Little Light of Thine: Stories of the Sanctuary Lamp. Also available at Amazon here.
O Dayspring Ideas from Over the Years:
- Sun Chips with lunch is an easy and fun treat.
- A Woman Clothed with the Sun (Oranges)
- O Dayspring Ice Cream, Non-Alcoholic Mimosas or Texas Sunrise with Breakfast
- Our favorite tradition for this O Antiphon is to pile in the car after dinner with hot cocoa and drive around to look at all the Christmas lights.
- Decorate a Christmas Candle (We use a tiny wax baby Jesus I purchased years ago along with Gold Decorating Beeswax from Stockmar.)
- Stargazing was the plan for the evening of December 21, 2020 when the planets aligned causing a rare Christmas star to appear!
- Candles from The Cloister Shoppe and these (shop closed) Sacré Cœur Beeswax + Essential Oil Candles made by a friend/local parishioner are on my wishlist!
- Our Lady of Fatima: The Graphic Novel (miracle of the sun)
- Grimm’s Casa Sole Stacking Blocks or the Gluckskafer Sunrise Arch
- New Christmas Pajamas
O Dayspring, Brightness of the everlasting light, Son of justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!
December 22nd – O Rex Gentium (O King of the Gentiles)
This Search and Find puzzle from Shining Light Dolls ties in nicely! Our little girls will love it.
I have one to send one of you too! Scroll to the bottom to enter the giveaway.
O King Ideas from Over the Years: (many are perfect for Epiphany too)
- Crown Cake, Cupcakes or Wreath Cookies
- Wreath Charcuterie Board (We made the one pictured one year)
- Bake Cookies using the Wise Men Cookie Stamp from Rycraft, Inc
- Assemble a Three Kings Puzzle or Nativity Snow Globes Puzzle
- Listen to King of the Golden City CD
- One year I picked out one of the beautiful sets of Three Kings Gifts – we pull it out every Christmas!
- Read The Wise Men Who Found Christmas is great too!
- Twas the Evening of Christmas Picture Book – Our daughter received this one year on the feast of St. Nicholas. It’s such a lovely book!
- Three Kings Playset from Shining Light Dolls
- Three Wisemen Socks from Sock Religious
- Three Kings, Ten Mysteries
- Deluxe Christmas Nativity Wooden Playset from Shining Light Toys
- Seek and Find Books from Ignatius Press… We already have the first in the series. So fun! (Also available from Amazon here.)
O King of the Gentiles, yea, and desire thereof! O Corner-stone, that makest of two one, come to save man, whom Thou hast made out of the dust of the earth!
December 23rd – O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)
This year it’s a cozy Nativity Fleece Blanket from Rifle Paper Co. purchased during a great sale. I love their Holiday items this year! I included a few other’s in this year’s gift guide.
O Emmanuel Ideas from Over the Years:
- Decorate Nativity Cookies to give as gifts or Cookie Cutters Tell the Christmas Story
- New Cookie Cutters from Shining Light Dolls (Save 10% with SHOWEROFROSESBLOG)
- Make a Chocolate Nativity Scene for Christmas
- Decorate Chocolate Christmas Coins using this FREE Printable
- Holy Night Puzzle
- Fill a basket to deliver to the nuns at Carmel. Fresh Fruit, Various Cheeses, Christmas Cookies and other goodies!
- Christmas picture books, coloring books including the beautiful Eucharistic Adoration: With Saints And Symbols Of The Eucharist coloring book, or the Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: Christmas with The Dominican Sisters of Mary.
- Children’s Nativity Set – you can find some of our favorites in this post and more of our collection here (scroll down a bit)
- Also check out their Deluxe Christmas Nativity Wooden Playset and Christmas Nativity Wooden Cube Puzzle from Shining Light Toys
- A Child’s Christmas ABC Book (review here)
- 2020 Fontanini Ornament
- Nativity Icon from Clear Creek Abbey
- The First Christmas for Our Dear Little Ones from St. Augustine Academy Press
- My True Love Gave to Me: A Catechism for the Twelve Days of Christmas Currently out of stock at TAN Books)
O Emmanuel, our King and our Law-giver, Longing of the Gentiles, yea, and salvation thereof, come to save us, O Lord our God!
Scroll through all the past “O Antiphon” posts here.
If you are looking for gift ideas, you can find my lists of Christmas Gift Ideas & Stocking Stuffers here (2015), here (2016), here (2017), here (2018), here (2019), here (2020), here (2022), here (2023), here (2024) and here (2025).
O Antiphons Giveaway
And finally here is my final Shower of Rose’s Giveaway for this year… This will be a quick one!
Just leave a comment on this post by 11:59PM PST 12/21/2025.
We’ll use a random comment generator to choose a winner on Monday!
Includes Mini Catholic Kitchen Rosca De Reyes Epiphany King Cake and Saints & Symbols Search & Find Giant Floor Puzzle 24″ x 36″ sponsored by Shining Light Dolls ($64.98 Value)
Congratulations, Sarah F!
Read more about our family’s traditions here:
Spider-Man Birthday Party
Spider-Man: No Way Home… for Christmas
Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party
Spider-Man was the theme this year for her 16th birthday and it ended up being such a fun party. I kept things pretty simple, but still festive, focusing on her themed cake, lots of easy party food, and lots of time for her and her friends to just enjoy themselves. Here are some photos and details from the celebration!
Free Printables: Food Tents and Birthday Banner
Here is the link to the Spider-Man Food Labels/Tents that I made to go along with our menu.
We re-used the Movie Reel Happy Birthday Banner I made years ago. It can be downloaded here.
Spider-Man Themed Menu
Peter Parker’s Pizza
Spider-Man’s Deviled Eggs
Daily Bugle Chips & Dip
Multiverse Chow
Friendly Neighborhood Popcorn
Extra! Extra! Greens
Aunt May’s Christmas Cookies
Spider Web Cupcakes
MJ’S Hot Cocoa Bar
Spider-Man: No Way Home… for Christmas! Cake
Party Time
Movie Time
“All this for a holiday party?”
“Don’t slip. We don’t have liability insurance.”
“He was like a… Like a flying green elf.”
“Well, he sounds jolly.”
doesn’t exactly = Christmas movie! 😂
Please send us your favorite Christmas movies, we need some new ones to add to our usual mix!
Sixteen Candles
I blogged how I made her Spider-Man Birthday Cake here.
She received so many sweet and thoughtful gifts from her friends and we gave her that portable Karaoke Machine she’d been wishing for from us… plus her golf clubs that she got very early (back in August) for this year’s high school golf season! She didn’t forget and kept saying we had “already gotten her a big gift!” ❤️
Happy 16th Birthday to our beautiful “Christmas Rose!”
Spider-Man Birthday Cake
We celebrated our daughter’s Sweet Sixteen with a “Christmas Movie” Pajama Party with lots of her friends, complete with a Spider-Man Birthday Cake. So much fun!
She argued that Spider Man: No Way Homeis a Christmas movie ❄️🎄🕷️🍿😂— happens at Christmastime, has snow, mentions of a “holiday party” and a “jolly green elf”, and all that… Not sure if I agree—though the recent poll in my Instagram stories had more people agreeing with her than I expected!—but it was definitely a fun theme for her and I enjoyed putting it all together!🎉
I ran across this idea in my google searches for inspiration. I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off, but I was very happy with the results! Here is how I did it in case anyone else wants to try.
How to Make a Spider Man Birthday Cake
Supplies:
- 3 – 8″ Round Chocolate Cakes *
- Chocolate Frosting
- KitKat Candy Bars – I used 6 Regular Size
- M&M’s Minis
- Chocolate Candy Melts
- Super-Man Action Figure
- White Yarn
- Bamboo Skewer (optional)
* I used the remaining batter to make 12 cupcakes.
Directions:
I trimmed the rounded top off of each cake and stacked them with a layer of chocolate frosting between each.
Frosted the outside as well – didn’t need to worry about getting it perfect, most of it was covered with candy.
Start unwrapping all those KitKats…
Using melted Chocolate Candy Melts attach two KitKats at an angle, as well as his webs (white yarn), holding them in place to let harden. Start covering the cake with mini M&M’s as pictured.
If you have some little hands around the house, they are really helpful for attaching all the M&M’s minis to the front of the cake. 😉 The girls really loved getting to help!
Add Spider-Man action figure to the top.
A bamboo skewer worked to make sure he stayed standing, but realized later it wasn’t needed once all the candy melts hardened.
I also broke all the KitKats apart to make them go farther. I used all six that I had purchased. It also made cutting the serving the cake much easier than had they not been broken apart. The birthday girl loved it!
For those familiar with the Spider-Man movies…
Can you guess which of the three Spider-Men is her favorite?
For reference: Her other celebrity “crushes” have been: Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables), Sherlock Holmes and Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes), Tadashi (Big Hero Six), Demetri (Anastasia) and Flynn Ryder (Tangled). She has a soft spot for the thoughtful, tender-hearted, slightly awkward hero!
The three main live-action Spider-Man actors, in order of their first appearance, are Tobey Maguire (2002), Andrew Garfied (2012) and Tom Holland (2016).
Hoping to share more pictures from her party soon!
Happy Sweet Sixteen to our Spidey-loving,
sweet, and spunky girl! 🕷️🕸️❤️
Celebrating Santa Lucia Day
Celebrating Santa Lucia Day
Santa Lucia (St. Lucy) was a young Italian girl who was martyred for her faith in 304 AD. During Advent in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is Santa Lucia’s Day originating from the stories told by the holy Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.
Traditionally ‘Lussekatter’, St. Lucia’s Day Buns flavored with saffron and dotted with raisins, are served by a girl dressed in a white dress with a red sash around her waist and a crown of candles on her head. A recipe for Santa Lucia Braided Bread, a festive inspired by the candle-covered crown she is said to have worn to light her way as she brought food to the persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs, can be found at Catholic Cuisine.
Our little girls had been counting down the days to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Santa Lucia Day, thanks to their Advent calendars! They went to bed early last night, since they have been getting over a cold, but our 8 year old was able to stay up long enough to add all the raisens to the Lussekatter. “Rose” and I had everything baked and ready for them when they woke up.
I’m definitely going to miss these days when they are all grown up!
Night walks with a heavy step
Round yard and hearth,
As the sun departs from earth,
Shadows are brooding.
There in our dark house,
Walking with lit candles,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!
Excerpt from Santa Lucia Song
Happy Feast of St. Lucia!
Santa Lucia Jigsaw Puzzle
Isn’t this Santa Lucia jigsaw puzzle by Penny Puzzle just the cutest?!?
Last year I spent way too much time trying to track one down, but I finally found and ordered it from a Scandinavian shop called Ingebretsen’s in Minneapolis to give the kids for Saint Nicholas Day. I later found it restocked at Puzzedly and ordered a couple more to have on hand to give as gifts, but didn’t have a chance to share it with you all before it quickly went out of stock… I’m finally sharing before it disappears again!
The Dala Horse puzzle they received this year is also really cute (the kids finished it in like a day last week!)… and they will discover this Swedish Holiday Kitchen one tomorrow for this year’s feast of St. Lucy!
I couldn’t resist taking lots of photos while our little girls worked on putting it together. ❤️🕯️
Santa Lucia Jigsaw Puzzle by Penny Puzzle (only 4 in stock at the time of posting)
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Pictures from last year’s feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – December 12, 2024
Happy feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!
The little girls actually made a shopping list for me this week, insisting on our annual brunch for dinner tonight and definitely St. Lucia Braided Bread and Lussekatter for tomorrow. I love that the girls have been looking forward to it this much! Our 8 year old is referencing these photos and setting the table as I type! ❤️
Note: We are substituting our usual “Crushed Serpent” extra crispy bacon for gummy worms since it’s meatless Friday … tears… as my oldest son would say… I could have actually had the bacon on this strictly keto diet I’ve been on for a couple months now! I’m going to attempt a keto crepe for myself with whipped heavy cream and a scoop of this Superfood Creamer Peppermint Mocha in some Sleeping St. Joseph Decaf Dark Roast.
St. Juan Diego’s (Crepe) Tilma with (Strawberry) Roses & Whipped Cream
A Woman Clothed with the Sun (Oranges)
Crushed Serpent (Extra Crispy Bacon) *Substitute with something else for Friday
Crescent Moon Rolls and Starry Cinnamon Rolls
Crown of 12 Stars Dark Chocolate Stars
Bishop Zumarraga’s Candy Cane Crosier
Aztec Cocoa and Orange Juice
I also usually cut the crepes into Tilma shape, but skipped that step last year. You can see pictures from 2013 here – the kids were all so little!
“Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protections? Am I not the fountain of your joy? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the cradle of my arms?”
– Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego
Our Lady of Guadalupe Giveaway
Includes: The Virgin Mary Around the World Board Book, Our Lady of Guadalupe Wooden Prayer Candle, Our Lady of Guadalupe Rag Doll and Our Lady of Guadalupe Puzzle sponsored by Shining Light Dolls ($49.96 Value)
Congratulations, Marion C!
Leave a comment on this post and enter using the giveaway box below for a chance to win!
Our Lady of Guadalupe GiveawayP.S. The Old and the New Series Giveaway ends today!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Heart of my Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, I unite to thy purity, thy sanctity, thy zeal and thy love, all my thoughts, words, acts, and sufferings this day, that there may be nothing in me that does not become through thee, a pleasure to Jesus, a gain to souls, and an act of reparation for the offenses against thy Heart.
Scroll through many additional post for today’s feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe here.
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