A Brand New Glory Stories CD – Secrets From Heaven {and a St. Mary’s Messenger Giveaway!}
I always try to have my Christmas shopping completed (at least mostly completed) before Advent begins and am currently working on checking off a few last items as I start to pull out and set up all of our Advent Decorations and Book Baskets! This year I’ve broken the “three” gifts for each of our children into three categories: something fun, something faith based, and something to read. We already had gifts/ideas for most of the children, but I was having a difficult time coming up with something faith based to put under the tree for Chiquita… (I already have one of the Shining Light Dolls for her stocking.) I was so excited to hear that Holy Heroes has just released a brand new Glory Story CD: Secrets from Heaven – The Children of Fatima! (If you buy it today you can also choose a free Holy Rosary CD!) It will be perfect for her!
I have decided to wrap the two CDs along with a copy of the St. Mary’s Messenger 2013 Summer Issue (which she hasn’t seen yet and which featured one of her past birthday parties!) and a St. Mary’s Messenger Subscription as her “faith based” gift. She is going to love it!
St. Mary’s Messenger is a full-sized, full-color, standalone, 32-page, quarterly Catholic magazine for kids, ages 7 to 12! The yearly subscriptions (4 issues) are available for $19.95. I’ve posted more about St. Mary’s Messenger here.
St. Mary’s Messenger has generously offered to give complimentary subscriptions to TWO of my visitors here at Shower of Roses! If you would like to be entered in the giveaway, please use the Rafflecopter entry box below:
Celebrating Thanksgiving
Our Festive Raspberry Cranberry Jello Mold
2 cans jellied cranberry sauce
3 1/2 cups water, divided
2 (6 oz) packages raspberry gelatin
2 cans fruit cocktail, drained
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1-12 cup or 2-6 cup molds
Bring cranberry sauce and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often until sauce melts completely. Remove from heat.
Stir in gelatin until completely dissolved. Stir in remaining 1 3/4 cups water.
Refrigerate until gelatin thickens to consistency of egg whites.
Stir in fruit cocktail and celery. Ladle into molds. Cover and refrigerate until set. At least 8 hours or up to 5 days.
To un-mold: Dip mold into warm water. Invert in serving plate shaking gently back and forth to release gelatin. (Repeat if necessary.) Refrigerate if not serving soon.
Praline Pecan and Mallow-Topped Sweet Potatoes
“Root of Jesse” Ornaments for the Jesse Tree Swap
In addition to the angels I made for the Jesse Tree Ornament Swap, I also mailed in the set of “Jesse” Ornaments (Tree Stump with Shoot) from my local friend Trina, who I convinced to join the swap when she was here tutoring one Tuesday morning. (Her boys are the ones who have been joining us for a few of our feast day celebrations this year!) She made her ornaments with some birch branches from her backyard and I thought they turned out lovely! We are really looking forward to seeing the rest of the ornaments when our box arrives!
A Choir of Angels for the Jesse Tree Ornament Swap
I’ve mentioned a few times that I am participating in a Jesse Tree Ornament Swap this year! I choose to make the “Angel” ornament for the swap. Our box of ornaments hasn’t arrived yet, but since I’ve started to see the sets arriving at other homes I thought I’d share the completed pictures of the angel ornaments I made!
- 2-3/8″ Wood Peg Dolls – I usually purchase mine from Woodworks LTD
- Acrylic Paint – I used Skintone, Metalic Pearl White and Yellow
- Fine Tip Sharpie Black Paint Pen (for the Angels eyes)
- White Glitter Felt – I used 4 sheets for 35 Angels
- Gold Pipe Cleaners – 5″ or so for each Angel (I cut each pipe cleaner in half)
- White Ribbon (to create a loop for the ornament hook)
- Scissors
- Hot Glue
My Daybook :: November 25, 2013
Outside my window…
It has been a beautiful day. The sun will be setting soon and I probably should be making dinner, but since the baby toddler is still napping and the rest of the kids are outside playing I decided to pop in here instead!
I am thinking…
about my babies in heaven.
I am thankful…
for God’s grace and the uncountable number of blessings He has sent my way. God is Good, all the time!
Learning all the time…
our thanksgiving break has arrived. I’ll be doing some Math lessons with the younger ones, since they fell a little behind during their trip to see their grandparents, but other than that we are all very excited to have the week off our “official” lessons. Of course, that doesn’t mean the learning stops… just that it is a lot more fun! 😉
Celebrating the liturgical year…
today is the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria. Since she is the patron for one of our daughters we also celebrate a name-day today!
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| Catherine of Alexandria from Lives and Legends of Saints |
From the kitchen…
a heart shaped cake. It is perfect for today in so many different ways.
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| Spice Cake, Heart Shaped Pan, Dusted with Powdered Sugar |
I am working on…
cleaning and organizing our home… Rose’s Godparents and their six children (including our newest goddaughter!) will be spending Thanksgiving with us this year and they arrive tomorrow night! We are all so excited!
I am creating…
a meal plan for the next few days.
I am going…
to run to the store tonight or tomorrow… I ordered some fudge from my friend Jacinta that I need to pick up and also forgot to by sweet potatoes! (Note: Jacinta is offering 10% off through November with the code TISTHESEASON! It’s the perfect time to place an order for Christmas – it is amazing fudge!)
I am praying…
the Act of Resignation to the Will of God from Mother Love Such a beautiful prayer and there is a partial indulgence attached when united to performing your duties or bearing the trial of life.
I am reading…
a new Advent and Christmas book that arrived in my mailbox today. I was actually sent two copies – one to review and one to giveaway! I hope you all aren’t sick of the giveaways yet! 😉
Pondering these words…
from today’s Quiet Moment in Catholic Digest:
Around the house…
- Spend lots of time with friends and family! I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving and Blessed First Sunday of Advent! (Just in case I am not able to make it back to the computer this week… We’ll see!)
On the Feast of St. Cecilia :: A Sweet and Simple Treat
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| Can you find Saints?: Introducing Your Child to Holy Men and Women |
Bargain Priced Books :: The Baker’s Dozen
The Kindle version of The Baker’s Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale is currently available for only 1¢ at Amazon, and it’s free for those who have previously purchased the print version. I just downloaded a copy to my iPad!
Celebrating the Saints :: Our Annual All Hallows’ Eve Party!
The feast of All Saints has come and gone. With Thanksgiving and Advent just around the corner, I need to hurry up and share the pictures from this year’s party, which we hosted once again at our home on All Hallows’ Eve! I am fighting a cold so I am going to just let the pictures tell most of the story, otherwise this post may end up permanently in my drafts folder with so many others! 🙂
St. John Vianney, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Juan Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Gregory the Great, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John of the Cross, – All Saints in Heaven, Pray for us!
As always we began the evening with the holy rosary praying that we may all one day be Saints in Heaven, as well as for our Departed Clergy, Departed Family, Departed Friends, and for the Forgotten Dead. Afterwards we took a group photo of all the children who came to the party dressed as saints!
My friend Trina coordinated some of the games for this year’s party and most of the games she choose were variations of youth group games. (Her husband was the Youth Minister here for many years.)
This gave was a variation of “Do you love your neighbor?”
All the children sat on “chairs” (pieces of paper) in a large circle. One of the children stood in the middle and said “I love all saints… especially saints who _________.” (fill in the blank)
For example, if the child in the middle says “I love all saints, especially those who are male.” All the boys must move from their spots and find different ones. They may not take a spot directly next to the one they are already at. This gives the person in the center time to take a spot and escape from the middle.
The person in the middle may say anything within reason to get people to move. For example: I especially love saints who are in heaven, saints who have been martyred, saints who were bishops, saints who are wearing white, etc.
All the “saints” all had such a blast playing this game!
As always I had special treats for all the children who came dressed in costume and stood up to share a little about their saint with everyone.
I also ended up giving all the older children who were not in costume candy bars as well telling them that it was “just like grace… We don’t deserve it, but God gives it to us anyways!” 😉
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