We celebrated the first day of the new liturgical year by welcoming a wonderful group of friends and family into our new home.
We had an impromptu Southwest theme. Dom cooked up a huge pot of chili, perfect for a rainy November day. He also made fresh salsa, guacamole, seven layer dip, and a baked macaroni and cheese casserole for the kids and people who don’t like the spicy stuff. The chili was a hit, especially with my sisters-in-law. And the macaroni and cheese vanished by the end of the evening.
Dom tried to bake brownies, but grabbed the wrong box and made a chocolate cake by mistake. He was a bit surprised when the brownies rose so much. We had no frosting, so served it as is. We also inherited quite a few leftover Thanksgiving desserts: two blueberry pies, two pumpkin pies, and a cheesecake.
Bella was in heaven with all the kids running around. Until, that is, anyone tried to play with any of her toys. We had many tantrums and many small discussions about how she plays with their toys at their houses and needs to reciprocate when they are her guests. (In simpler two-year old vocabulary, of course.)
Among our guests were the pastor of our former parish, a long-time friend of Dom’s, who married us and baptized both girls, and the pastor of our new parish who used to be at my brother-in-law’s parish and is a great family friend.
The highlight of the day was when both priests blessed the new house. Fr. Riley read the blessing service, doing wonderful catechesis with all the children along the way. The readings and prayers brought tears to my eyes, admittedly some of that may have been augmented by hormones. (You can read the full rite here.Father Murphy went through every room in the house sprinkling liberally with holy water. Liberally. A nice touch was using the holy water bottle we use every night during bedtime prayers.
A wonderful beginning. I pray that this house will continue to be filled with love and laughter and joy, with prayer and praise and all the goodness of friends and family.
That is odd about the moths. Can you figure out what kind they are? Maybe they are attracted to something in particular this time of year?
So sorry about the nausea. No fun at all. I have to pick and choose between bouts of nausea to clean anything in the kitchen or deal with the garbage at all. Hope it goes easy on you.
The moths are winter moths—they are now climbing up into nearby trees (especially my maples!) to lay eggs. The caterpillars will hatch in May and proceed to decimate the leaves until about Memorial Day. If you have trees in your yard, you need to either wrap the trees in a barrier so they can’t climb up (preferably one soaked in a nice fierce pesticide) or wait and spray for the caterpillars (or against them) when they come out next May. (Yes, I realize these options do not appeal to a pregnant woman.) Or endure a rain of caterpillar poop and leafless trees next May. The trees will re-leaf after one of two years of infestation, but the moths have killed many town trees up in Arlington over the last 5 years or so. If you have trees in your yard (it didn’t really look like you did?) it may be worth calling a tree service to spray—the cost and effort to take down dead trees can be more than the cost of spraying—and you can go visit someone they days they spray. Can you tell I’ve had this problem for a while?
Wow, Cathy, that was impressive… My dreams of a future yard full of maples and oaks didn’t involve a “rain of caterpillar p…” lol! Thanks for sharing your experience.
As far as Christmas books, I just ordered this one: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Story-Jane-Werner-Watson/dp/0307989135/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227702115&sr=8-3 (sorry, my html literacy has abandoned me after I got married and had children!) It’s just $3 and promises to be quite beautiful.
And next time I get a good coupon from our local bookstore, THIS is what I am going to treat me and my family to: http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=409350831225 – heavenly music!
I feel very strongly about winter moths…we first noticed them three years ago, when we having a Memorial Day party on our patio and wondered what the poppy-seed looking stuff was that was landing in the dip. We moved the party indoors….