Theophany and our last Christmas dinner

Theophany was such a full and wonderful day!

We drove to our far-away church, 

enjoyed the beautiful liturgy, blessing of water and blessing of the Church...

One of the lovely moments in the blessing of water, 

was that there was a young boy nearby and he was watching 

from "up high" (being in his tall father's arms) and our 

far-away priest gave him the Cross to kiss all by himself,

he was really excited. :) 

(side note: in the Theophany season

one has one's house blessed...

 we are having our house blessed next week Sunday night!

I am so excited! It always feels like the house is new afterwards, 

as if all is forgiven, washed, soothed and restored... )

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To learn more about Theophany you can go here or here

to start! :) ). 

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We had lunch near church and then went home...

I fell asleep in the car for about 30 or so minutes!

Then we were home, I prepared the delicious! 

Turkey Encore Casserole, with the homemade 

cream sauce! It worked perfectly!

Mr Husband rested while I was doing the last 

preparations and then they were here!

Munchkin + Mom and we had a wonderful time!

***

The Munchkin was, as kids are, in a hurry for every thing he loved, 

doing the Christmas crackers, playing with Uncle/Mr Husband,

 having his piece of cheesecake. ... he enjoyed his presents and 

esp the "Diary of the Wimpy Kid Mad Libs" .... 

and then it was time for goodbyes and 

just as he was going through the front door, 

he looked at me and gave me a spontaneous hug. 

He has a long history of being sad when he leaves us so it was not a full surprise 

but yet it was so nice to see and receive. 

And just seeing him be a kid still, at 9.5 years old, 

saying he was king because of the crown...

***

It means so much to me that he feels loved here

and is growing up with some happy memories at our home...

It is for moments like this that I have collected my

Christmas dishes, bought English Christmas Crackers, and 

decorate our home for Christmas!

***

I've been so blessed with dear friends and also family 

sending gifts to us...

The Munchkin gave me his present for me

(I think his Mom was directly involved, since he's 9.5 years old ;) )

on Christmas itself but I promised him I would save it for

when he came as I had things to give him as well.

I did not peek though I was so curious, as it was fairly heavy.

They have us such sweet and useful gifts...

A jar of jam that can be used as a cup afterwards, 

a blueberry vinaigrette, and a lovely pad of paper!

We have a pad of paper similar in size to the gift we were given

and that pad is running low...

so often God reminds me that He has every detail of our life

in His mind and even knows when we need a new pad of paper...

***

I keep thinking of my Grandma and how she says

how thankful she is and how very blessed.

Me too....

***

And that was Theophany and our Theophany night 

Christmas dinner!