A Puzzling Christmas

Nov. 22, 2007
The kids and I were in one of those mega-bookstores the other day, the kind that offers coffee, games, and crafts in addition to books. And I got the bright idea that I would buy a puzzle because that is good for the brain, right? It was really for the kids so I let Olivia pick it.
She, of course, picked the 1,000-piece Christmas scene that has lots of snow (i.e. unindentifiable white pieces) in it. I said, "Why not?"
Well, now I have a goal. I want to have that puzzle worked by Christmas. There are only a few drawbacks. Besides the dog, I'm the only one currently showing interest in the puzzle. Kayla, the dog, showed so much interest that she ate at least one piece, causing Joey to break down in tears and ask to call 911. The only things that make him cry these days (he's 6) are when the dog is hurt or when he breaks a new toy.I assured him a puzzle piece wouldn't hurt Kayla. I ate plenty of paper when I was a kid and it didn't hurt me. Now I figure I will find him eating paper to see how that goes for him.
So, now that we are in the Christmas season, I took an informal family poll to see what our favorite Christmas carols are.
Me: What Child is This
Dad: Chestnuts Roasting by an Open Fire.....
Olivia: Away in a Manger
Joey: Silent Night
It's funny, I have always loved that song even before I was Catholic. Rather prophetic as it is the one that really highlights Mary, too.
Joey, on the other hand, absolutely loves Silent Night because it was his lullaby from the age of about 12 months. He was an absolutely terrible sleeper because of his health (allergy) problems, and I used to sing that song to him at night in great hope that it would be a silent night. Usually didn't work. But the first time we went caroling when he was a toddler and began singing Silent Night, he threw his Blanky Blue over his head and cried to go to bed.
We have been in our new home about two months and I am getting used to living in a smaller community that has fewer Catholic churches. So, today, if I wanted to go to mass I had one choice ( in English). And I went to the small parish around the corner from the local Cathedral.
I really liked it and had wanted to visit it before. It is called St. Gerard's and traditionally has served the non-Caucasian Catholics in the region. But it really reminded me of my old parish near Memphis because it is small and simple and has a variety of types of people in it. Our suburban parish in Tennessee was near a U.S. Naval base so we had a lot of military types there and more ethnic variety than I see at our current huge Downtown parish of 1,500 families. So, I hope to go to St. Gerard's again and even looked up that saint on the Internet. I learned a lot. What a wonderful story of that patron saint of motherhood. You can check it out at www.saintgerard.com