The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
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We have three winners of the wonderful Roman Hurko CD*! If you won, you have an email from me! If you didn't win, do take advantage of the generous offer from the composer to purchase the CD for $15 plus shipping/handling (vs. the regular price of $20 plus shipping/handling). Just mention in your email** that you are a reader, and for the coming week, the discount will be applied.
*The album is also available on iTunes for $9.99. There's no way to offer a discount there, but that's more affordable, although you don't get the beautiful printed matter, including translation. You can also buy the tracks separately.
**To purchase the CD, email carocpw at gmail dot com, where you will be directed to pay with Paypal and receive an invoice. The physical address is
CARO Productions, LLC
Ansonia Station
P.O. Box 230151
New York, NY
10023
10% of the purchase price will be donated to a fund for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
We are doing what we do and only now winding up our renovations of the Chief's office/library, which of course brings us right up to Christmas decorating/crafting/baking time (not having been content with crowding our Thanksgiving prep). Here is a sneak peek!
Bridget has done yeoman's work in there! I am trying to come in as the closer, putting in last-minute touch-ups and figuring out the new normal with all the books and, well, stuff.
So I am writing this in haste, so I can get to the boxes in the attic while attending to the boxes in the living room!
Buy an old house, they said.
It will be fun to DIY it, they said.
I'll be falling in my grave just a little behind time, with paint under my fingernails, trying to tidy up as I go…
On to our links!
- A fun article about when to put up and take down your Christmas tree from the Drinking with the Saints crew — their advice/experience exactly mirrors ours! With four December birthdays in our household, I just couldn't leave the decorating to the last minute; but with a die-hard Advent-observer in our midst (the Chief), I couldn't do it early, either. We do our best! How about you?
- A wake-up call from the gentle and reasonable Prof. Peter Kreeft: Those who follow militant Islam and LGBT ideology are willing to die for what they believe. Are Christians?
- A glimpse of a different era in the White House, when black cooks ruled and made what sounds to me like absolutely delicious food. I love the name Zephyr, and this talented chef for LBJ turns out to have been perhaps more famous than for her cooking.
- You know I love John Taylor Gatto! The incisive Stella Morabito writes a marvelous appreciation of Gatto, who passed away this week, along with a strong critique of our educational system. For a good shot in the arm to do what it takes to give your children freedom to think and to learn good things, do read.
- Monday was Solzhenitsyn's 100th birthday (shared by Habou, although she's not that old yet!). I think that some have learned of the great man's writing from Jordan Peterson, but you owe it to yourself to read this article (and Solzhenitsyn's works themselves). Peterson gets Solzhenitsyn's witness to truth but does not understand that it is his faith that motivates and enlightens the Russian thinker. If you have never read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (the H. T. Willets translation), you must — and your teenagers must too. A tour de force that embeds the idea deep in your soul that each person must make the choice to do what is right or suffer moral death.
From the archives:
- There's still time to make plum pudding if you want to.
- A little pep talk in the midst of “Christmas parties” and Advent preparations that may or may not be going the way you envisioned.
Today is the commemoration of St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli — and don't miss the lovely little essay on the linked page about the “three nativities”!
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
Juliana @ Urban Simplicity says
We’ve had our conflicts over Christmas decorations too, and we celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7, so that adds an additional layer of complication.
I grew up Protestant, however, and my family’s tradition is to put up decorations the day after Thanksgiving, as well as start listening to Christmas music. We never celebrated the 12 Days.
My current family tradition (with my husband and four children) has evolved to accomodate my husband’s wishes, so now I put up decorations around St. Nicholas Day (which is december 19 on our calendar) and take them down the day before Theophany (January 19). That way it is up in time for the celebrations of St. Nichlas, which always feel festive to me, and through the Twelve days of feasting after Christmas. I’m usually ready to put it away at Theophany (the baptism of the Lord). I do have some Orthodox friends who leave theirs up through the Presentation in the Temple, which is February 15, but that feels too long to me (they also put their decorations up after Thanksgiving, so it is a LONG festal season for them!)
I have a couple of CDs that have Advent-y type music, but not carols that I start to listen to around then, and pull out all the Christmas CDs on January 7. If it were up to me, I’d do it differently, (and if it were up to my husband, he’d do it differently!) but that’s the compromise.
Caitlin says
And I thought I had it rough being new-calendar Orthodox! 😉 Blessed Feast!
Caitlin says
Leila, speaking of celebrating correctly, do you have any advice on timing of present-opening on Christmas morning? We are Orthodox, and will be going to evening (not midnight; it’s not offered) services on Christmas Eve and a festal Liturgy Christmas morning at ten. Should we hold off on all gifts until after Christmas morning services? Do it before, because they will wake up early anyways (they are up at six every day; I don’t expect Christmas morning to be that different!) Having to end the gift exchange with a hurried getting-ready session like any other Sunday sounds awful to me. My husband wants to do nothing until after Liturgy; I am thinking maybe stockings in the morning then gifts under the tree after church? Oh, and we are certainly saving back a big gift or two for later in the twelve days. Thanks for helping me establish good traditions for my little family!
Kate says
We always go to Mass first, either midnight mass or morning (sometimes both). Then we have breakfast together. Then we all sit in the living room and leisurely open gifts. Their Christmas stockings (which mostly just has candy) they can get into when they wake up. We’ve always done it that way, so the kids don’t expect anything different. They know they have to wait until Papa settles down with his cup of coffee and says it’s time.
Angelique says
We explain it like this: Jesus is the best Christmas present so we receive him first (at Mass) and then come home and open the other presents in His honor.
Leila says
Caitlin, we always let the kids open one present first thing (after a prayer by the creche); then breakfast, then Mass (for those who didn’t go to the Vigil). We would come back and do the rest, with stockings later on in the day.
(They say that this is not correct, that we did stockings first, but I don’t think so. Maybe we switched up in different years… )
Rosemary Callenberg says
We often get our tree on Guadete Sunday … although in shorter Advents like this one, we get it the Sunday before! We put the lights on (this year I did it on St Lucy’s feast which I thought appropriate!) but hold off on decorating it until Christmas Eve.
In the future I’d like to use the Christmas tree as our Jesse tree!
Kate says
We’ve been married 31 years and we’ve always decorated our tree on Christmas Eve. We get the tree about a week before and stick in a bucket of water outside. When the older kids were young, my husband (the Advent fascist) and I decorated the tree ourselves when the the kids were in bed. It was a bit tiring, but knowing that this was our plan, I tried to get other things (like gift wrapping and breakfast prep) done ahead. I loved seeing the look on the kids’ faces when they saw the tree on Christmas morning. As the kids got older, the teenagers would stay up and help decorate the tree after we sent the younger ones to bed. Now, my husband and do almost no decorating as the kids take over Christmas Eve, We keep our tree up until the day after Epiphany. My kids often suggest keeping it until Candlemas, but I cannot handle the tree needles until then. I think two weeks is plenty of time to keep a tree in the house, taking up floor space. If I had a bigger house and a living room that didn’t double as a family room, I might feel differently.
Kate says
I wanted to add that we do it this way because we read years ago somewhere that the decorated tree is a metaphor for the transformation that comes to the world with the birth of Christ. It’s not just a way to decorate one’s house so it feels festive and to get everyone in the Christmas mood.
Abby Badillo says
We typically put up our tree on the 22nd, let it “rest” for a day before we decorate (since it has been all wrapped up in twine), and decorate the 23rd. Christmas Eve always feels to hectic for decorating, what with baking and a special Christmas Eve meal, and my husband usually having to work.. we go to the Christmas vigil Mass, not Midnight, because of little kids. We do however go cut our tree in early December and then put it in a bucket of water in our basement, after a couple of “nearly didn’t get a tree because everywhere was sold out” close calls, trying to find one on the 22nd.
Leila, this is totally unrelated to Christmas and/or trees.. but.. how old is your “diy” house if I may ask, and what kind of shape was it in when you bought it? I ask because we are hoping to be house hunting in the spring. Our purchasing budget will be low because we are a low-ish one income family, but we desperately want land and to get out of the “city” (I know you can’t really call anything in VT a true city). The housing market all over the state is ridiculous, and we are trying to figure out whether buying a very diy kind of house is going to work if the budget for renovating is going to be minimal and we could only chip away a little at a time. Any advice?
Leila says
Abby, our house was built around 1860 — not super old for our area. If you look through the blog, you will see the various things we have done throughout the years. I could write a book about the factors in the decision you are making (one income, kids, New England setting, town/country, DIY)!
I would say that every house requires work, new or old. We tried to balance having it be more or less livable but still cheap (and ours was very cheap for complicated reasons).
I have this post that might help you: http://likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/03/ask-auntie-leila-relocation-priorities-and-the-desirability-quotient/
Victoria says
We have a very-much-fixer-upper ourselves; it was built in 1918 and “renovated” in the 70s by the previous owner. I think sometimes that maybe we were crazy to buy this house, but then I think that I would have gone crazier living in a town-home. I don’t mind living in a dated house, but what stresses me out is the paint and varnishes: there’s a lot of chipping going on and sometimes I feel like we can’t keep up with painting it over. Ultimately we decided that living near a traditional parish and having a large yard were more important than living in a low-maintenance, trendy town home. We realize that maybe there are better ways to preserve capital, but this isn’t about the money at the end of it all.
Lisa G. says
The tree article was enjoyable! My birthday is three weeks before Christmas and as a child I always requested the tree be set up on my day (we’ve always had artificial trees). I see things so differently now but I still put it up around that day and leave it plain, or with some nature-type ornaments. As Christmas approaches, I bring out more and more things, making everything more glittery and joyful-looking every day. Since I’ve begun to understand about the meaning of Advent and the whole Christmas season I find myself doing things a little differently each year, as my understanding changes. The first day of Advent I take out Mary and Joseph from a small nativity, and have them waiting for their Baby. The other larger nativity (the white Avon one) is set up on Christmas Eve day. But I like to display pretty Christmas cards we receive here and there, too. After Epiphany I will undo things probably the same way, but opposite, as I set them up, leaving the bare (with lights) tree up till February 2nd.
It’s nice that Bridget is able to do so much with your renovations at this busy time. I have been trying to strip wallpaper and paint in the bathroom, but it’s difficult in between all the other Christmas things I’m doing now.
Carol Kennedy says
We have developed a sort of Christmas Eve tree tradition of our own. We usually put up a tree on the first Sunday of Advent or as close to it as is practical that year. In the beginning we used real trees, now we have artificial (which makes the whole tradition easier as you will see). We decorate the tree with a few purple bulbs and white lights. The lights are only turned on on Sundays and feast days until Christmas. We add homemade saint ornaments on the various Advent feast days (when the kids were young we added Jesse ornaments, now we have a seperate Jesse Tree). On Gaudette Sunday we usually add some rose colored bulbs. On Christmas Eve (or the day before) we take down the Advent ornaments and then, usually in the evening, we decorate for Christmas, the lights go on at dusk when official “vigil” time begins. When we had real trees we actually went out a few days before Christmas (or on Christmas Eve) and buught a fresher tree very cheap–we we could leave it up a longer time. One year we got a tree on Christmas Eve for 1 cent at home depot! Now, with artificial trees, there is no need. THEN, the tree stays up and decorated with lights on till….February 2, when the Vatican usually takes down the Nativity, on the Feast of the Presentation. We LOVE Advent and Christmas time!!
Cynthia says
I grew up with decorating on Christmas Eve. My husband grew up with the tree up ASAP after Thanksgiving. Because my husband’s family always gets together to start celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve (evolving from the Polish traditional feast–though very little of the traditional 7 fish remain on the menu, lol), we can’t do it on Christmas Eve and maintain any sanity! Our own family tradition has become a bit more flexible, though no earlier than Gaudete Sunday. This year we are in the middle of construction/renovations that will push it back to closer to the 4th Sunday (coincidentally shortening the time we will need to protect the tree from the current crawling/pulling up 8 month old!). It generally stays up until the Baptism of the Lord, unless the needles are driving my husband too batty!
Katie says
This year and last year we put up our tree and decorated on Gaudette Sunday. It has made for a nice Gaudete Sunday tradition, although I think in longer advents we will do it later. I grew up in a Christmas-starts-the-second-thanksgiving-is-over family, so I’m slowly adjusting and trying to figure things out.