Christmas at St. Francis de Sales Oratory

Ah, Christmas. There is so much hustle and bustle, especially when there is a Gaudete Benefit Gala a week before.  So, grab a cup of coffee (or for some, malt liquor) and enjoy my photo montage of Christmas Day.  The first photo was taken around 12:05 a.m. Christmas Day at St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis and the last was taken around 7:00 p.m. at Uncle John's house.  I *did* sleep between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.

Procession.

Prayers for Archbishop Carlson.
Look at all of those beautiful poinsettias!

You can see the side altar where the creche is located.

Going to the side altar.

Creche.

My view from the choir loft.

Ah!  An Italian dinner!

Salsiccia. An Italian sausage that we pronounce Sa-zee-tsa.
We also say Pasta Gazoogoo. We're Sicialian, ok?

No Italian meal would be complete without these.

Hootiecootie might know these wines.

And then Santa visited us at the end of the evening.

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas Day and

continue to enjoy the remainder of Christmas!!

Many years ago today...

...I was married in the Basilica to that skateboarding guy.

They needed a gal in this family!

Happy 70th Anniversary!

Today is my Grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary.  I'm pretty sure they were married by a justice of the peace since they were high school sweethearts who were only 17 and 18.  Hmmm.  I'll get the whole story this weekend at their party. (You'll remember my Grandfather from this awesome photo.) Here's a shot of them I took a few months ago:

Still volunteering!

Here's a beautiful photo from my parents' wedding 43 years ago.  It was taken at the Cathedral Basilica and you may recognize the veil on my Grandmother - it's the one my daughter wears now.

My Grandmother is just a little older in this photo than I am presently!

There will be 5 children, 15 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, spouses, ex-spouses (don't ask) and various extended family at this party!  Wow, what a celebration.  The best part is that my sisters will be home for this craziness - I can't wait!  Come back next week for the details!

I'll show YOU skateboarding

We have a Tony Hawk wannabe at de Sales.  I'm not going to name any names, but let's just say he's the sacristan for the largest church dedicated solely to the traditional mass in the entire galaxy.  His friends call him Trip A.

Here he is getting his sea legs:

I took off the training wheels! Yay!

Here he is shredding:

The stone house in the rear of this photo is presently for sale
 for a whopping $10,000 if anyone is interested.

But I thought you might want to see what some real life backyard half-pipe action looks like circa 1988.  I may or may not be married to this person now.

She fell in love with me for my Vans.

And here is that same person reading a book (surprise!) while his brother bursts a spleen or something:

I call this trick "falling."

Six Flags

Six Flags offers free tickets for doing what we do best - reading books. Today I brought 3 of my kids there with Mrs. D and her kids to go on kiddie rides and to check out the latest tattoo fashions. We're hoping to get a family discount at the tattoo parlor up the street now.

When our day was over I took this sweet photo of the ferris wheel.

Notice I'm not IN the ferris wheel...

I have to be careful whom I tell things to because jokes like this appear in my in box:

Two blond girls were on their way to Six Flags. When they were almost there, they saw a sign that read: Six Flags Left. So they turned around and went home.

Hi.lar.i.ous.

Buon Compleanno! 100 di questi giorni!

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