Third Sunday of Advent

We didn't have a chance to take a photo today, so I can't join up with the gals at Fine Linen and Purple, but definitely go see everyone over there! Hopefully next week I'll be able to participate again.

This weekend, though, deserves a post... and Little Bear finally fell asleep on my lap, so I can't go do anything productive, and I definitely can't risk waking him by laying him down, so I guess I'm writing.

My calendar said that this was going to be a pretty simple, low-key weekend. Being me, I interpreted that as an invitation---an imperative, really---to come up with a crazy long to-do list. So when extra things suddenly began popping onto the calendar? Whew. It's been kind of crazy.

Friday we were supposed to attend a dinner for folks involved with the local Catholic radio station. Little Bear decided that that wasn't going to happen: very little sleep the night before, very little nap, very little interest in doing much other than yelling. We were going to have to stay home. But by that point I had the car so we had to go pick Matt up after work anyway, and my brother got home from Ohio for break about the same time Matt got off work, so we ran up to my family's house for a short visit before bringing Little Bear home for an early bedtime. The unfamiliar bearded uncle was apparently intimidating, because Little Bear hardly made a sound while we were there!

Saturday morning, Matt wanted to run to town and do his present-shopping, and Little Bear and I were going to stay home and bake cookies and clean the apartment. The boy was so sad to see Daddy getting ready to leave, though, and brought him his boots so hopefully, that we wound up heading to town with him. Matt dropped us off at the grocery store while he went somewhere else, then came in and found us to help me pick out better windshield wipers since ours just smear stuff around and create ice everywhere.

Did you know that winter windshield wipers only come one in a package? It's dreadful. And we didn't figure that out until he went to install the new ones today, so I guess I'm going back to the store tomorrow.

After the grocery store, Matt dropped us at the thrift store (yay!) while he went one more place. Little Bear decided that he was all done riding in carts and being carried, and pushed the cart all over the store for me. We basically ran around in circles for twenty minutes instead of actually looking at clothes, but I don't really need more clothes anyway; I'm just glad that I started in the men's section so that I had picked out the sweaters Matt'd asked for before my little man decided to play truck driver---complete with "vroom, vroom" sound effects.

Little Bear had happily worn himself out driving the cart, and took a great nap when we got home. We skyped with a good friend from college later in the afternoon, then I scrambled to do all of my housecleaning and bake cookies and five loaves of cranberry bread (because I'm a crazy person) before another friend came over for supper. I was so glad to see Little Bear warm up to her after we ate; he's very wary of people whom he doesn't know well, especially when they're in his house.

Today, Gaudete Sunday, I actually did manage to wear liturgical rose to Mass, plus a heavy sprinkling of sparkles that kept Little Bear poking my shirt and laughing. He was very quiet during Mass, though! I knew that we couldn't stay too long after Mass because we were picking up one of Matt's coworkers, but since Mass concluded earlier than usual, I was happy to be able to be included in the meeting of the women of the parish to plan for Christmas setup, decorating, and the annual Christmas potluck. I know that we are young, and you can't expect to feel at home in a new parish right away or even for quite a while, and many, many people in the Catholic community in our area really can't help but see me primarily as my parents' daughter... but every time we go to the university parish, we feel like we are unquestioningly accepted as Catholic adults. It sounds funny, but the fact that no one was surprised or expressed happiness that I came over to join the other women in the planning meeting ("Oh, I'm so glad you want to help!", etc) meant a lot to me.

Of course I stood around talking, and Matt and Little Bear eventually got tired of running around outside and went out to the car to wait for me. We got to the uhaul place where we were supposed to meet his coworker right on time, though... But he wasn't there. He called a few minutes later and said that he was running late and would need about 40 minutes. Well, we were on the opposite side of town from home; it was definitely nap time, but it would've been a huge waste of gas for Matt to run us home and then drive back out to pick the guy up. It's -7, so too cold to just play in the snow with Little Bear for the next half hour... in fact, doing something warm sounded like a very good idea. And the Barnes & Noble down the road had a huge fireplace.

Matt attempted to install our new windshield wipers (and discovered that there was only one) while Little Bear and I went inside and found the duplo table. He had a grand time stacking them into towers--he hasn't learned about pressing them together yet, so the towers were also fun to knock down. After Matt joined us, we enjoyed the fireplace and big comfy chairs until it was time to head back to the uhaul place.

Now we are home, the sleeping toddler peacefully snoring as he sprawls half on my lap, half on the couch. I can't quite see my still-enormous weekend to-do list from where I'm sitting, and that's probably for the best. We will light the pink candle on the Advent wreath tonight, and I'll bake a batch of cookies, a simple kind, maybe shortbread. Perhaps Matt will dig out some Christmas CDs... do we even have any? There's always YouTube. And everything else can just wait, and the world won't end. My goal for the last hours of our Sunday is peace, peace and joy. Gaudete, rejoice!