Celebrating

I love holidays and feast days. What can I say? I am a Catholic. We thrive on celebrations. And on guilt. Maybe that is why we celebrate so much. Because of the guilt. It keeps things in balance. And the guilt is probably because Catholicism is rooted in such a long intellectual tradition. Which makes introspection a great part of your duty, inspiring such pamphlets as "how to form your conscience". Because just having a conscience or listening to your conscience is not enough. After all, as my three year old toddler just demonstrated by shoving his brother because he was angry with me, and not being nearly remorseful enough afterwards, an unformed conscience let's you get away with sins quite easily. A formed conscience however will point out your faults rather glaringly. Hence the guilt. And hence the love for celebrations. Balance after all, is divine. Did I mention I am really bad at Theology?






My love for celebrations is found in the fact that I love to find any occasion to celebrate. Catholic Icing, A shower of Roses, and Catholic Cuisine have been very helpful in that respect, and I can only thank Mother Church for reminding us how many things we have to celebrate in Jesus' love for us! I have a far road ahead of me before I am as creative as these wonderful ladies of course, but I dare to throw in an Saint's day here, and a Holy Day there, just to break the long line between my birthday in march and my son's birthday in September.
But with all that, you can imagine how much I LOVE the big holidays. Birthdays, Saint's days, anniversaries, Easter, Christmas. And I start thinking about them long before. How can we make them holy? How can we make them fun? Last year we started creating our own Christmas traditions, adapting them to our own family. With two small children and no family nearby we forwent the traditional formal Christmas dinner and spread out the blanket in front of the fireplace for a Christmas eve picnic with all of our favorite foods, from pizza rolls, over string cheese, to chips and sushi. It was great and a lesson learned for me: adapt and enjoy.

The next big celebration for us is Joseph's fourth birthday. His current obsession is marble runs. For the last months he has been talking about nothing else. Instead of his usual television programs (Sesame Street, Thomas the Tank Engine, etc) He wants to watch Youtube videos of marble runs and marble machines. And of course he really, really, REALLY wants a marble run of his own. We told him he had to wait till his birthday. This is still two and a half months away, and he has been asking for one for months. It's not an expensive toy, but we want him to learn he can not have everything he wants just by asking for it. He is counting down however, first to his visit with Mimi (his grandmother) in just six days. Then to his birthday in September. As he is counting down, I am starting my mental preparations. Anticipation is half the fun (and half the work, if you have already figured out what you want by the time you have to start buying and preparing).
The marble run is a given. He will have waited five months for it, so he deserves it. But what about the cake? After Last year's semi home made success, I really want something special again. Guess what I found online???



What do you think? Can I do it?????