Meeting Metropolitan Jonah and Sister Vassa

Sister Vassa came from Vienna, Austria to speak at the St. Herman's conference.  She is just as interesting and funny as she is in her videos:  http://www.srvassa.com/

There's Hannah singing in the choir...she's wearing the green hat I crocheted almost 3 years ago, so it's easy to spot her!

 Censing around the church.

Metropolitan Jonah is in blue.  He greeted everyone with warmth, smiling a lot and spoke about kindly.  I like him!

My nieces, throwing rose petals before the Metropolitan came in the church on Sunday morning.

 

At the end of the Liturgy he gave a sermon on how we all have so many distractions (like those who were healed in the Bible story we read in church, of the 10 healed only 1 came back to thank Christ), maybe a motorcycle, new house, just got married...but need to remember to pray and go to church!

My girls with Sister Vassa.

  Hannah and her girl friends from ORPR camp!

Good tidings to all...

"Joy is not in things, it is in us."

-Richard Wagner

I'm trying to remember this, to spend time together, looking at one another, helping others, it's more important than things...like gifts.  Our society advertises so much that you think Christmas is just about giving and getting gifts, when it can be about spending time together, showing you love and care for the people in your life.  ♥  We will celebrate Christmas with some family this week, but focus on the birth of Christ on January 7th, old calendar Nativity.

The glow

Every morning, I wake to see the glow of our Christmas tree. 

Our girls were asking what people did before electricity.  I can only imagine if we had candles, it would be pretty, but much more difficult to light each candle.

 Getting ready for a family picture...for our Christmas card.

We decided we wanted Lusy (our dog, who looks like a blur here) and Velvet (our black kitty) in the picture, too.  Sorry, didn't get the chickens in on it this year....maybe next year!

Christmas in Killarney

The 8-hand ceili team...Olivia is the 6th in line and Hannah 7th, all the girls wear dark brown curly wigs, so you may not have been able to pick them out.

And now, with their cousins and a friend from church...with the wigs (we have curled their hair, it's too much work) that match their natural hair color:

This past weekend, the girls danced in "Christmas in Killarney."  Here is Hannah's class, ready to dance the 2 hand jig, her partner was the only boy in the class.  Half of the time the girls dance the part of the "gent," but she really got to be a "lady!"

Church in Minneapolis

We went to Minneapolis for an Irish dancing event.  We visited St. Panteleimon's, where our friend Fr. Anthony is the priest.  He is one of the priests who helps out at ORPR camp in July. Below, he is holding an icon of St. Alexis Toth.

Fr. Anthony starts the prayer before we all ate...and this little boy in the suit and tie is Petya, who was celebrating his 7th birthday.

They have a beautiful little bell tower.  The weather was lovely, snowy, but warm and sunny with blue skies.  I ♥ visiting new churches.

Early Thanksgiving

Olivia polished the silver.  This silverware was my grandmother's wedding silver.  We don't use it everyday, just on special occasions.

 Hannah wrote name cards and set the table, adding a sprig of sage from our backyard to each plate.

We made bacon-wrapped green beans.  I basically followed this recipe:  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/green-bean-bundles-with-bacon-and-brown-sugar.html  I used frozen green beans and didn't use the butter or brown sugar.  They were SO good!

 We celebrated Grandma's birthday (which was a few days ago) with a cake afterwards.

 Grandma with 3 of her grand daughters.

Meanwhile, my husband's littlest brother, Nathan, went to fly the remote control helicopter.  It was a bit windy.  He accidentally flew it over the house...it was quite funny!

The girls played games inside, hide-and-seek, checkers, UNO, etc.  Being together, talking, laughing...this is what I ♥ about Thankgiving.

It's still fall...but feels like winter

 We met up with a friend to go sledding.

 This is our favorite park to go sledding...

 She almost hit that tree!!!

 Lusy (our dog) came and had a great time, too. 

 Olivia trying to "snowboard" on a sled down the hill...she has great balance!

 Time for a break...chamomile and lavender tea or hot cocoa?

Have a great weekend!