Epiphany

Every year we celebrate Epiphany Sunday (the second Sunday after Christmas.) The readings at Mass tell of the wise men that made the journey bearing gifts to honor the new born King. Before our first child was born, Paul and I decided we would set apart this day each year to give our gifts to our children and make this day special just for us. It gives us a chance to celebrate throughout the 12 days of Christmas. We have visited with extended family. We have welcomed a new year.


This year Epiphany was January 3rd. Right away in the morning I put a pork loin and carrots in the slow cooker, set the table and listened to a chorus of "Mom, when are we going to open gifts?" You would think they would remember from year to year that we do not open gifts until we get home from Mass; but, every year they forget (yeah... forget? Oh, I'm sure not! They just hope I will forget and let them open them sooner. Nice try kids!)

After Mass, we walked in the door to the wonderful smell of dinner cooking. After putting the potatoes on to cook, I took pity on the children and we gathered in the living room to open gifts. Before opening the our presents, we sing "We Three Kings" and add our wise men to the nativity set. This year we add something new. I found gold, frankincense, and myrrh in decorative boxes. As we sang "We Three Kings, the kids took turns placing the gifts near the manger. Then we all gave our gifts to Jesus for the up coming year. These gifts can be anything that you feel God wants you to work on in the year ahead. We write our gifts on a slip of paper and place them in a small box that sits on our family altar throughout the year. Then the kids were finally able to open their gifts.

After gifts we had a wonderful dinner together. Apparently, I can still cook! The kids loved it! We decided we wanted to spend the rest of the evening playing games, but what do you do when 6 people all want to play something different?? I had everyone write a game on a slip of paper and put them in a bag. We drew out one slip and played that game for awhile and moved on to another Apples to Apples was the first draw and mom came out victorious!! Then we played movies charades. Lawrence put in NERF war. That was the third and final draw. We split up and played three on three (little did I know we had 6 nerf guns in the house) and each team defended one end of the house. Which ever team commandeered the most nerf bullets by the set time would win! Myriah, Magdalene and I took on James, Madison, and Lawrence. After almost an hour of running, chasing, dodging, and laughing we all dropped. By unanimous decision, games were over and it was time to add songs to the new mp3 players and watch a movie. We had fun!!! It was a very good day!