I can't believe Christmas will be here soon! I still need to get my Secret Santa gift for work. Anyway, it's Monday again and the three of us had a pretty relaxing weekend. Which was MUCH needed.

Saturday
I went to work at seven and got out at one. We had a steady flow of customers which helped make the work day go by fast. Everyone is definitely preparing for Christmas. I've been asked a few times for nicer bills so they can stick it in a card for grandchildren. Good thing I keep my money pretty ;) With that, I mean, I take the time to straighten out the wrinkled money so they are nice and neat. Me & one co worker are pretty much sticklers about that. Since working at the bank, I've made sure to keep money nice and neat. When I see wrinkled money or folded corners, I have the urge to fix it--even out of the work place. It's pretty bad. After work, I went home and found my boys coming in a little after me. I did a few loads of laundry which so badly needed to be done. While waiting on laundry, I decided to make seven layer bars/cookies to bring to the FCJ Gathering/Lord's Day celebration later that night. We went to the church and had dinner there as well as the Lord's Day.

Lord's Day is a celebration to prepare ourselves for the Lord's Day which is Sunday. Lord's Day is held Saturday evening so that it prepares us for Sunday. A lot of times, we are too busy to really focus on Sunday. & what Sunday should be. Sure, we go to Mass, but honestly, how many of you are itching for that hour to hurry up so you can: go to lunch? watch the football game? go back to sleep? do homework? etc... Lord's Day celebration helps us get ready for, you guessed it, Lord's Day.

I remember growing up that this was something my dad brought into our home a few times. It wasn't just for the big gatherings we would have at church. I hadn't gone to one for a while, so it was nice to be there again. What was neat was when the parents starting to pray over their kids. Growing up, that was something that was pretty emotional for me especially when it came to the times when the kids would pray for their parents. That night we didn't do that, but my parents were praying over me, while Jason&I were praying over Matti. & it just made me want Matti to grow up loving the Lord so much more.

After that, we went to my parents' house because Jessica was visiting for a little bit. We ended up meeting her & a few other people at Flat Iron Farm. We've wanted to take Matti there, but life has just been so busy. While we were there it started snowing! It was little, but my cousin was able to see it so I was happy. I wish the flakes were bigger though. My brother & his crew went to the house and we stayed for a little longer to take Matti around. We saw horses, goats, sheeps, donkeys, cows, alpacas, and even a cat! Matti had a great time saying hi to all the animals. For example: One of the many horses is named Beau. I would say, "Hi Beau!" & Matti would say, "HI BEAU! NEEEEIIIGHHH!" & so on with the many animals there. The lights were pretty as usual. They have one of the houses hooked up so it plays in sync with two (maybe three) songs. We walked around to the different shops and Matti had a blast seeing the trains they had. They had a lot of old things which me & Jason love to see. Old radio flyers, bikes, McCormick spice cans, old tools, farm equipment, cars...you name it, they probably had it. I wish we hadn't bought our Christmas ornament yet, because they had some there. I know where to go next year! We also ran into someone from high school and he seems to be at a great place right now. Three kids & owns his own business. Amazing. After the farm, we continued on to my parents' house where everyone was. We played a little Kinect :) Dance Central & the adventures game. Matti kept everyone entertained. Jason & I decided to see if the old Sega worked and it did! We played a little of Golden Axe, Toy Story, and Lion King. Good stuff. When we went home, we went straight to bed. It had been a long day for me.

Sunday, we slept in a lot later. We got up at ten and Mass starts at 11:15! Jason & Matti got up to eat breakfast within fifteen minutes. We have to fast an hour before Mass. I slept in five more minutes before I got up to make myself a cup of coffee to down in ten minutes, haha. We went to Mass and was happy to find that Father Bill George was celebrating it. I love our priests, but it's always nice to have him when we do. He is at Georgetown University most of the time. He always gives a good homily and he always thinks of the kids. He's the only that walks around the church during Peace to shake everyone's hand & hug the kids. I miss that. Jason likes him because he will tell us why they do certain things. Why they put a water in the chalice. He keep things light and throws in an appropriate one liner to make everyone laugh. At the end of Mass, he was giving us the blessing and he said, "When I nod, you say, 'Amen.'" He said the blessing and we said Amen three times & he was ending the Mass with, "In the name of the Father..." At the end, of course everyone said "Amen" outloud, and he chimed in saying, "But I didn't nod!" Hehe. I talked to a few people after Mass until Jason's dad said they were leaving to have lunch. We ended up going to a local restaurant called Linda's cafe. I couldn't remember if I had been there or not, but I think I have. I love going to locally owned restaurants because I love to support them. It turns out, the parents invited Father Bill to join us so that was fun. The food was amazing. I got a BLT with Egg. Don't knock it til you try it. It. is. amazing. Jason got his usual reuben and Matti got french toast which he scarfed down. After lunch, we decided to check out the antique shop next door. Again, Jason&I love to look at old things. We didn't get anything, but there were a lot of neat things inside. I was debating on getting a chest for Matti though. Didn't get it. We went home, but made a stop at the library. We decided to check out their movies, but they didn't have anything we haven't seen or were interested in. OMG. We've seen too many movies! lol. We picked up one of the Life DVDs. I decided to look around and found myself in the autobiography section. I picked up two books. One is Promises and it's about a woman who vowed to send a classroom of kids (kindergarten, I believe) to college. The other is Practicing Catholic and it's about a man's journey in the Catholic faith. It caught my eye, so I grabbed it. Not really sure if I will get into it. Matti went to the kid's area and he made a friend. He played for about half an hour and we didn't pick out any books for him. He has a few here at home he hasn't read yet. We went home to find that the Redskins lost terribly, again. =( Come on boys! Frustrated, I went to do another load of laundry, haha. We just relaxed the rest of the evening watching Saving Private Ryan. I made dinner and after we ate, Matti asked me to hold him while sitting on the couch. Within five minutes, he was asleep. We put him to bed a little before eight while Jason & me stayed up. We were watching Pearl Harbor and once The Game (Steelers vs. Ravens), I flipped it back and forth. Then, when Desperate Housewives came on, I flipped between that & The Game. After DH finished, I was tired so I decided to go to bed. I mean, the Ravens had been at 7-0 for most of the game. I figured I wasn't going to miss much. I kept the TV on in case I woke up. & I did after the game had ended. I checked ESPN to see who won and it took forever for it to come up. Steelers win. Boo. Oh well, at least they have nice jerseys. Oh, but I did see Big Ben's broken nose early on in the game! Ouch! But then that was about it. Redskins lose. Ravens lose. Cowboys win. UGH. Great!

So here I am soon heading to work. I have a pretty easy week (as far as schedule) at work this week. This Friday is my early off so I'm looking forward to that. I hope you all had a great weekend and a great week ahead.