Christmastime is Here!

Cue the music

Hello everyone!  

It's good to be back on Blogger after so long.  Thanks for sticking around and waiting for me to finally start posting again.  :) Christmas break has been pretty good so far, even though it's hard to believe that Christmas is so close already.  My unrealistic to-do list is much too long, and I'm having a hard time realizing that some things just aren't going to get done.  :S  Maybe that's a good thing, though. It forces me to take a step back and relax after being on full-speed during the semester.
Anyway...

Last night my family spent the evening at my grandma's house. 

I took a few moments to take some pictures of the Christmas displays.   Some Most of the pictures were pretty bad, but I've discovered that PicMonkey can make even the most mediocre photos look halfway decent.  ;)

The weather forecast is predicting snow in our area on Christmas Day.  Wouldn't that be wonderful? 

The upcoming Christmas liturgies are going to be beautiful.  I love how there are different readings for Christmas Eve, Midnight, and Christmas Day Masses.  It reminds me of just how deep and colorful the Catholic faith is.  

Have a blessed and merry Christmas to all of you!

Oh, and for all of you who have noticed that Someone is missing from this scene, the manger is empty because Jesus hasn't been born yet.  :D

Meet Me in St. Louis

Warning: Excessive amount of doll pictures.  If you are offended by  an unusual number of dolls photographed, you might not want to read further. ;)
This Sunday my family and I went to St. Louis for the day.  It is one of our favorite places to go because there are so many things to do in St. Louis for free that appeal to everyone.
This Sunday was an exception to that appeal for everyone, at least for a little while. 
We went to the American Girl store.

It was a true dream-come-true for myself and my younger sisters.  :D

The store opened in March of this year, and from what I can tell, it's been going great for AG.   :)

The amount of dolls in that store was stunning.  They had dolls in the displays, underneath the displays, and on wall-to-wall shelves.
It was incredible!

They even had armies of dolls!  ;)

The store had a mini Bistro, which was really cute.  I took a picture of the light fixtures.  The bubbly one in the center is my favorite.

I had to take a picture of the Josefina display.  Josefina is my favorite.

They had the tiny weaving loom on display that I've seen in catalogues for years and always wondered what it looked like in real life.
It looks like it would be rather difficult to set up for a young girl, in my opinion.

I also took a picture of the Kaya display.  You can see her horse, Steps High and her dog with his own travois for carrying things.

To be honest, I kept hold of myself pretty well until I saw Kaya's tepee.
This was the best picture I took of it. 

When I was 13, I received a mini Kaya doll for Christmas. I consequently made tepees out of chop sticks and brown fabric for Kaya.  It was one of the best Christmases ever. ;)

I didn't realize that AG is still selling mini dolls of the retired characters like Kirsten and Samantha.  You can see them on the far right.

After a while though, my dad and brothers were done with standing around awkwardly while we girls jumped up and down enthusiastically.  I am so grateful that they waited patiently for us.  I can imagine what it was like for them.   They told us all the hardship and ridicule they received from other customers. All. The. Way. Home.

Afterwards, we went to the St. Louis History Museum.
It's a pretty impressive place.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson in the main entryway.  The museum was made for the St. Louis World's Fair  and was a part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  Jefferson was President at the time and a necessary driving force of the Purchase and the subsequent Lewis and Clark Expedition.

There was a small exhibit on weaving in the back room.
This is pretty much the only picture I took of it because my camera's battery died.

The history museum was followed by the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, which was beautiful as always.  Later we stood underneath the Arch and walked through the underground museum.
It was a great day.

History via posters

A few days ago, I received a bunch of old certificates and posters from a friend of mine.  Some of them are quite old: the oldest dating back to 1907!  As you can imagine, it is a pleasure to have such old pieces.  The pieces were apparently rolled up for some time, so I had to weigh the top and bottom of each piece down so that I could take a picture.
The first two pictures are of a First Communion certificate from 1907.  If you look closely, the certificate is in German.  Most people in my neck of the woods are of German descent, including myself.  

 The certificate is pretty rough around the edges (literally), but the colors are still vibrant and the gold embossing shows up nicely.
Here is a close up of the German words.  Pretty cool, eh?  The small picture on the left is an angel staying the hand of Abraham to prevent him from sacrificing Isaac.  On the right looks like a depiction of the early Church during the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

With a few exceptions, the certificates were the only ones that had dates on them.  Figuring out the dates for every one will take some time.  I will have to do some research online using publishers' names.  Hopefully I can find something!

 This Last Supper poster is much smaller in comparison.  The artist's name is Schmidt, a German name if ever there was one. ;)

 
This picture is a copy of a pencil drawing by someone named Athanese, I think.  It was difficult to read the handwriting.

What follows are lithograph posters.  At the moment, I'm assuming that all of them are lithographs, because several of them were labeled as such.

Here we have a classic "Good Shepherd" poster.  

This Nativity scene poster is very beautiful.  

This poster of the children and their guardian angel is one of my favorites.  The colors are so pretty.  

Very true. :)

This is a scene from one of my favorite Bible stories.  It's a relief to know that even St. Peter had problems trusting God. ;)
The sides of the poster look warped.  This is because the poster curves inward from being rolled up.

The solemnest moment of all history: the Crucifixion.

This is another one of my favorites.  The saint pictured is Saint Cecilia playing the organ.  She is the patron saint of music and musicians.  The photo does not do justice to the color quality of the poster.  It is gorgeous. 

This "Good Shepherd" poster was very, ahem, curly.  I also laugh every time I see the sheep of the left of Jesus sticking his tongue out.

"Baa!"

 This last one is probably the worst quality photo I took of the entire set.  Oh well.  There is however a copyright date of 1911.  One hundred years old!

It was fun to play archivist this afternoon.  I'm not sure how I'm going to fix the curled-edge problem.  Ideally, I would frame each and every one of them, but my bedroom only has so much wall space, never mind the rest of the house. ;)

A Lesson And A Challenge

     Sometimes we do not realize just how much we affect others around us.  We are like violets in a forest, bowing our heads to avoid being seen.  However, everything we do and say makes an impression on people.  We often think to ourselves that we do not matter much and that no one will pay any attention to us.  We want to hide.  I'm not talking about false modesty per se; what I am talking about is more like the unawareness of the power we have within ourselves.  We do not understand our true worth and what our capabilities are.  We have the ability to make or break friendships.  We have the ability to reassure strangers with a smile and a kind word.  Any small thing that we do has the potential to be something great. We must realize this power, and understand that we are called to use it.  We cannot hide in the shadows any longer; we must become great people.

     We have often heard it said that we should be Christ to other people, but do we really understand what that means?  It means a complete change of person and character. No matter if we are having a bad day, have loads of homework, or just going about our lives, we are challenged by God to show His love in everything that we do.  This is a very daunting task: one that must never be taken lightly.  It is also very humbling, because by showing God's love to others, we realize that we are not perfect.  We see that we do not have all the answers.  We must become Someone Else in order to bring about any good in this world and make our lives worthwhile.  Thirdly, it is a great lesson in trust, because we have given everything we will do in the future to God and His Kingdom.  Only good can come out of this imitation of God.

     So I urge you to think about how you show God's love.  Do you hide it in the infamous bushel basket?  Do you shy away when an good opportunity arises?  Will you show kindness to others, or look the other way when someone is hurting?

                                              What kind of impression will YOU make?