{"id":43070,"date":"2013-12-24T08:45:06","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=43070"},"modified":"2013-12-24T08:37:58","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T14:37:58","slug":"christmas-eve-bust-cake-candles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/christmas-eve-bust-cake-candles\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Christmas Eve: Bust out the Cake & Candles!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas Eve only means one thing: a baby is about to be born!<\/strong> The excitement is crackling in the air. Can\u2019t you feel it? A birthday to celebrate. A new life to love! Many of my most favorite family traditions center around Christmas Eve. Yes, we attend Mass, have a delicious Christmas Eve dinner, open gifts, prepare the hearth for Santa and crank the Christmas music. But there are a few things in particular that have become beloved family traditions that help focus our heart on that sweet babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n

We do what any God-fearing southern family should do, we celebrate with cake and a party!<\/b> After dinner, the children place the Baby Jesus’ in our nativities. Then, we bring out the dessert and sing \u201cHappy Birthday, Jesus!\u201d I have always been a fan of birthdays and making Jesus\u2019 big day a BIG day just helps my children refocus on why<\/i> we celebrate. In an age of relentless toy commercials, mail circulars and loud billboards we need to constantly remind ourselves the simplicity and the generosity of God\u2019s greatest gift to us.\"christmas<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of God\u2019s generosity, we also pray.<\/b> Over the past sixteen years of marriage, my husband and I began to notice that our children were fixated on how many presents they received. I mean, it\u2019s natural, right? We all love to receive gifts and a holiday designated by society to dole them out just seems like heaven to a five-year-old. To help center our hearts, and theirs, on the sacrifice and love that went into the gift giving, we began praying over our gifts. We pray for those that made them, those that gave them and those that go without. It\u2019s the grateful heart that we hope to foster.<\/p>\n

\"christmas<\/p>\n

I suspect that during the Christmas season your family has received a card, or two, from friends and family.<\/b> Rather than socking those cards away in box or admonishing them to the recycle bin, we pile ours in the coffee table drawer. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, I believe, and so we adopted a good friend\u2019s tradition and made it our own. Each night, for the next year, the children race to pull out \u201cthe\u201d card. We re-read the letter, admire the photos, share our connection to the family and then we pray for those sweet faces. It has become the highlight of our dinner hour.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, this is the most wonderful time of the year. My greatest hope is that my children will come to love celebrating this season not for the gifts, sure to be discarded, but for the lasting and eternal promise of a Creator who will love us for eternity.<\/p>\n

\"ACNM-Advent3\"<\/a>Advent Challenge:<\/strong> Find a way to celebrate Jesus’ birthday this evening<\/strong>, whether it be in prayer, in song or in celebration. After all, he’s the greatest gift you’ve ever been given!<\/span><\/p>\n

Merry (almost) Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas Eve only means one thing: a baby is about to be born! The excitement is crackling in the air. Can\u2019t you feel it? A birthday to celebrate. A new life to love! Many of my most favorite family traditions center around Christmas Eve. Yes, we attend Mass, have a delicious Christmas Eve dinner, open… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,89],"tags":[384,1761,2129,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-43070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"category-family","8":"tag-advent","9":"tag-birthdays","10":"tag-christmas-eve","11":"tag-prayer","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42944,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/kucios-christmas-eve-lithuania\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":0},"title":"K\u016b\u010dios – A Christmas Eve in Lithuania","author":"Julia Motekaitis","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This month at Austin Catholic New Media, the contributors are taking turns sharing some of their family Christmas traditions. \u00a0While I have some very special ones from my own family of origin, today I'd like to share just a few of the beautiful customs I have experienced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Seneles-nativity.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":72536,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/what-do-nuns-do-for-christmas-christmas-among-the-consecrated\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":1},"title":"“What do nuns do for Christmas?” Learning about Consecrated Life","author":"Shawn Rain Chapman","date":"December 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 During Advent, I asked the Friars, Priests and Sisters what they do for Christmas in their communities. I called a cloistered Carmelite convent and asked what the nuns do for Christmas. I read accounts in articles and on web sites of Christmas at monasteries. I didn\u2019t really know why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_8023","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_8023-e1419883703693-127x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":192082,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/home-holidays-reflection-octave-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":2},"title":"Home for the Holidays: a reflection on the Octave of Christmas","author":"Shawn Rain Chapman","date":"December 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I know you might feel a little wilted, Reader, after all the Christmas presents and family and food (and sugar, etc.) I do too. I kind of like it though. The Octave of Christmas is a peaceful time. I deeply enjoyed Christmas Eve with my daughters and our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_1341","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1341-e1451253686837-127x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42913,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/tradition-less-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":3},"title":"A Tradition-less Christmas","author":"Elizabeth","date":"December 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was younger, the lack of any sort of stable Advent traditions was a point of pride. I\u2019ve spent many a Christmas eve camping out on the floor of the Miami airport during a 5-hour layover playing cards with my siblings, waiting to spend Christmas with family in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Tradition-Less Christmas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/winter-295x190.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":68267,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/dear-little-sister-christmas-letter\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":4},"title":"Dear Little Sister: A Christmas Letter","author":"Adam Shaivitz","date":"December 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a little late in the game to issue you an Advent challenge. Instead, as my gift to you this Christmas Eve, I'm turning over this blog space to a distinguished guest author: my eight-year-old daughter. First, some background information: In our household we've always tried to focus much more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/-rO_l1av3eck\/VIibD1-USVI\/AAAAAAAABzE\/ZwgTfEyyYf4\/s500\/Photo%25252020141210131206.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":343227,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/met-modern-day-john-baptist\/","url_meta":{"origin":43070,"position":5},"title":"Have You Met a Modern-Day John the Baptist?","author":"Adam Shaivitz","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We sure could use a guy like John the Baptist around here. If Jesus happens to casually walk past me one day like he did in today\u2019s Gospel reading, I sure hope that someone like John the Baptist will point Him out to me if I\u2019m not paying attention. 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