Saint and Inspirational Word Generators

One year when I was in Rome, we were given a holy card with a saint to endear for a year.  I remember getting St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. I just heard about a Saint Generator for getting a  Saint for the year (or whatever time frame)  Saint Generator HERE.  I got St. Ambrose of Milan which made me laugh right out loud as we are going to Milan in February (business trip for my husband) and I was hoping to get a chance to visit the relics of St. Ambrose. Well.... better get right on studying his life.

The same woman who put this together also has a word generator.  Word Generator HERE The first word Poppy and I got was simplify. Well, hello... wouldn't I love that.  But then when I went to choose one it was "Visit".  Hmmm... probably should spend more time visiting at the Adoration Chapel! :D and VISIT St. Ambrose in Milan! :D I think I'll think about the 2 words. Simplify has been a big word in my vocabulary lately.  When you have an entire school from pre-k through college level and all the reading books in between we can get our hands on, not to mention, any  number of other things a family of 14 needs (and too much we don't need)... well, simplify is a beautiful word!

And since we are a major Lord of the Rings Fans (can you tell from our blog names?) here is a LOTR's name generator HERE  I am not just "Aragorn's Wife" but "Hilda Handyman of Westmarch". I think "Hilda" is short for "Hildegard" (of which I have a fascination for St. Hildegard of Bingen".  :D

I digress.... silly me... but the saint generator is really neat and a great way to get to know a saint better (or at all!)

Merry Christmas 2017

 A very merry and blessed Christmas from our crazy house to your (most likely much more sane) house!   Here is our Christmas letter...

 Back tracking a little, more beautiful sun rise/sets

 Eleanor has been wanting holes in her head for a while so here we go.  Gotta love the huge holes in the piercer's ears. Wow.  I will admit to staring, I often wonder what these kinds of ears are going to look like when they are aged and everything starts to gravitate earth-ward.

 Picked up some cookies to celebrate the Feast of St. Thomas from the Bakery!

 An awesome TKD friend came over to help Frodo put new side-walls on his rumpled truck.

 Methinks this may be a very interesting truck...

 Looks like we might have a semi-white Christmas after all.

 Working on building a chocolate house.  

 Stir-frying Italian sausages on the awesome griddle.

Who doesn't love those pretzel/kiss/m&m candies.  A perfect sweet and salty treat if you ask me.

 right before Midnight Mass.  I forgot to take pictures during Mass and during the party afterwards.  oops.  It was a most beautiful evening... err... night, very early morning! We were tucking ourselves in at 3:00 am.  Everyone up by 8:30 ready to open gifts.  My eyes are SO SORE!!!  I need toothpicks!

Eowyn got an AWESOME GIFT! It was a jar of "writing prompts" and a notebook! Really, does she have friends who know her or what?

Pile o' stockings ready to open

First, however, comes Our Lord in the Stable. The reason for the season!

2018 Nativity

Gifts, gifts, gifts. We are well-loved!

at 4 years old, one is very eager to get at it!

Kinder Joy eggs. I love 'em, others thought they left alot to be desired :P

One half of the egg has a yummy chocolate cream thing with crispy balls, very tasty, the other 1/2 had a little toy in it.  Some were less than impressed. I thought it was adorable.

Poppy's new apron!

More mini dolls, can life get any better!

Frodo's very cleverly made ship

We were gifted with this BEAUTIFUL St. Nicholas statue! It's even more glorious in real life.  It was part of a priest's personal collection. What an honor. Please pray for the soul of Fr. Russell G. Roetzer. Eternal Rest grand unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light shine upon him. May he rest in Peace.

What an awesome gift from one of Aragorn's brothers! A pellet smoker!  Plans are to butcher and smoke some ducks this week. Poor ducks... lucky us.

Frodo instigated the first publishing of one of Eowyn's books!  It's entirely unedited which makes for a lovely conversation piece!  But this is the very start of publishing her books. I'm still editing one of them and am merely on page 5... *blush* 

This MP3 player isn't working quite right!  He was told by said God Father that he needs to let go of the ends when he puts them on his ears. It's actually a car charger. :D

My new mugs! Given to me from Samwise. :D

Trashed House... what else is new?

Biggest kiss I've ever seen.

Chocolate House

Tasty inside of the kinder joy egg.

How to make a family size pot of frothy hot milk.

For Aragorn from Belladonna

I was absolutely delight to recieve this lovely fan from Belladonna!  I had gotten one way back when I had gone to Portugal when I was in 9th grade. Need I say it lasted until I had a couple o' kids?  After all these years I now have a lovely fan again.

Lots of puzzled puzzlers

Did I mention the house is trashed?

Night off for everyone as the 3 stooges go out to the TKD school for a game night :D

Love the t-shirts with initials and what number grandchild they are on the Aragorn size of the pool.

A little mini-air hockey game going on in one of the non-trashed parts of the house.

As I was uploading photos I got this beautiful pictures of my gorgeous nieces!  Miss you!!

Merry Christmas!