Pretty in pink!

(Apologizes for my silence. It's not you; it's Advent. I promise!)

Happy Gaudete Sunday!

I’m honestly stunned we’re here. Hello pink (well, rose) candle!

This is the quietest I’ve been since I started on Substack back in February, I think! After my frenzied fall and wallop of a winter—speaking engagements, trip to Italy, immediately followed by the launch of a new book, not to mention my regular podcast and article deadlines—and then…Christmas cards and party planning…I had to focus on the immediate each day.

Last week, I was pretty overwhelmed, but things began slowing down over the weekend. I am actually feeling the pink candle today. I am feeling the joy of anticipating the blessings of what is coming.

There are still a lot of preparations ahead, but the pink candle is doing its job. I think I can name some of the reasons I am feeling the peace of that pretty in pink candle.

Today, I prepared the lasagna for the main dish of a party I’m hosting for our family on Friday. It’s in the freezer ready to be baked.

We started doing a little pre-Christmas gathering for our family some years ago when it seemed like bringing all our gifts to our extended families’ homes seemed a bit much—especially as our family count grew. It’s been nice having a smaller gathering at our home in anticipation of the big event: Christmas itself. It’s mainly for our children and their significant others.

This year, I decided to make it an Italian themed party since we have the goods and gifts to make such a thing happen. We just returned from Italy last month after all! I figured this could be a way for my husband and I to really share this adventure with our family. I even came up with an official invite/menu:

Also in preparation, though I’ve been adding things slowly, I started decorating our house with festive pieces all about. Our tree is up, lit in white, but without ornaments for now.

But my joy was also helped a great deal by meeting a friend in my daughter’s teaching city. That town is halfway between here and Peg’s home in Minnesota, so I get to kill two birds with one stone when we meet up.

Before that, though, I met my daughter’s second graders and read my book, “The Twelve Days of Christmas in North Dakota,” to them.

Well, I sang the book to them, and they joined me! I loved meeting her sweet students! After lunch, I sneaked back to the school to hear them perform in their holiday program. It was a joy for me to watch our daughter watching her class on stage!

That night, we baked cookies together. Not just any, but my dear mother-in-law’s special recipe. Snickers the dog helped out too. This will be our second Christmas without Bev, who left us a year ago, on Dec. 7, to be with God.

It was good to think of her, and rest that night at the home of my eldest daughter and her husband, and to wake the next morning to a chilly but beautiful winter day.

Joy was flooding into my soul as I returned home and began my pre-Christmas party prep for Friday.

I will begin the week with a short radio interview with Teresa Tomeo on her “Catholic Connections” program about our book, “Finding Flannery.” If you’re able to tune in at 8:25 a.m. tomorrow morning, Dec. 15, at the above link, you should hear that brief conversation, which will be short and—hopefully—sweet!

Below, you’ll also find the work I’ve done since my last installment. En-JOY!

What has brought YOU joy so far this week?

December 3: Memorial of St. Frances Xavier : St. Francis Xavier’s Proposal: Works over Words (W.I.N.E. blog)

December 6: Guadalupe Radio interview with Dave Palmer (interview)

December 7: ‘Let’s talk about those awful abortion protestors’ (“Living Faith” column)

December 14: Vietnamese history at St. Anthony’s ("Faith Conversations” feature)