Maggie Kuhn

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A Catholic Christmas

First of all, my husband is the greatest man I’ve ever known, besides my dad of course.

So, this Christmas was our second Christmas together and our first as a married couple and wow did we make it a well-traveled one. We both so enjoy road trips!

Admittedly, our road trip started the day after Christmas so let me back up and tell you about our “Hallmark” Christmas. We went to the Christmas morning mass which I think is such a wonderful day to begin a Christmas day. Celebrating joyously the Lord’s birth in Bethlehem in a tiny manger.

A manger used to feed cattle and oxen.

That is such a beautiful and humbling thing to think about. How grateful we need to be to have such luxuries nowadays.

The music at a Christmas mass is always phenomenal! We had an organ and interestingly enough a unorthodox addition to the Christmas music–a UKULELE!! What the crackers. Literally, that was such a crazy thing. I have never had a stringed instrument play at mass let alone a ukulele. Honestly, it was not to my liking. However, it did not at all dampen the joy of Christmas my husband and I had in our hearts.

Afterwards, we went home and began cooking. I cooked the cinnamon rolls and he made a DUCK!! and potatoes… and the rest of the meal..

We both love cooking and baking.

He used orange and cardamon to rub on the duck and then baked it at I believe 400 degrees F.

Duck is apparently quite hard to cook properly.

Sadly I can’t find the picture I took but this will have to do.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

After the duck, which also has tryptophan in it, we took a nap.

Afterwards we watched Hallmark movies and drank Hallmark wine, which is, apparently, a thing now. We also ate way to many Christmas cookies, our friends and family are so generous!! I just love the Christmas tradition of making Christmas cookies for others.

One of our Christmas traditions that we intend to keep up is that of cooking duck and making Christmas cookies for others.

Another prized tradition that we are keeping is having the Christmas tree and decorations up until the the Baptism of Our Lord, the first Sunday after January 6th. This is a Catholic tradition that we love!

Catholic Christmas traditions

All in all.

It was a wonderful first Christmas!

Hot Oatmeal and a Podiatry Appointment

I pressed the spoon against the small rectangular plastic container I had made my oatmeal in this morning. I just love oatmeal: personally, one of my favorite breakfast foods.

This morning I had the pretty standard fair with:

Golden raisins
Hazelnuts
Walnuts
Flax seed
Almonds
Dash of milk (contrary to just baout every recipe on the internet I STILL drink cow milk)

This morning was NICE, I got up at 5:30 and actually got the dishes done and the tidied the kitchen. So, at least I won’t go into a cleaning frenzy when I get home.

I am waiting now for my podiatry appointment at 9:00 and I am in no hurry. My husband (that still feels super odd to say) is at the school already and I arrived before everyone, except the janitor. Thankfully, after a bit, a nurse arrived. It’s a bit cold out here to stay outside.

Though, honestly, she only let me come into the entrance room–foyer area, between the two sets of sliding doors. Where I was still cold.

Thankfully minutes later a nurse came in and asked me if I had been invited in. And she let me into the warmer part of the waiting room. It was 13 degrees when I woke up.

The podiatry appointment was sadly dire news.

No surprise there.

I asked the doctors advice on my feet and he gave me some grim recommendations.

Honestly, it’s a lot to digest and I’m in no mood to do that, right now.

All I feel like I can do is pray to the Good Lord that he will show me which direction to go.

The 1st Day of the Rest of My Life

The wedding was in the dead of November with the leaves blowing across the cobblestone streets of the little Hallmark town we had chosen to have the ceremony at. I slipped my hand through the wrist loop attached to my dress as my corset was cinched up. Turning around I looked at myself standing on the little child’s stool I had found in the Catechism room I was dressing in.

I have ALWAYS dreamt of wearing a corset. And today, one of the most important days of my life I was wearing a corset. I realized later I ate a lot less food with it on… Haha!

I looked at my hair done up in bobby pins and lots of hairspray. I never use hairspray or bobby pins so this whole process was quite… different for me. But I will say the result was BEAUTIFUL!!

I waited anxiously in the Catechism room as I heard my father’s footsteps treading down the hallway. He reached the door and my photographer told him top step in backwards and then wait while she adjust my dress on more time.

Turning, his eyes were surprised and then filled with a tears, as he stepped to take my hand. This was the first mans hand I had held. This time was very emotional for both of us because we had shared a bond I that I’d wager to say was deeper than most father/daughter relationships, being that we had been in the same life-altering car wreck together.

His face, in the moment, is one I will not forget of my father.

This was the first day of the rest of my life married to man of my dreams, kilts and all.

Putting up Vegetables, Catholicism and Relaxing on a Grey Day

I sip Earl Grey tea and think of what a beautiful grey day it is. Pun on the grey.

Yellow juice squirted out of the tomato as I sliced delicately across its belly. I have been putting up a lot of vegetables in our freezer this fall hoping that we will have a healthy veggie filled winter. My gosh, it’s going to be Halloween before we know it. Goodness.

Here’s the tomato soup I’m making tonight.

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/creamy-tomato-soup-buttery-croutons

The sunrise this morning was breath-taking as I prayed over the mass readings today. I don’t have access to going to a mass everyday but I’ve taken up praying over the daily mass readings. I also discovered that you can bless yourself with holy water, yourself, at home. Previously, I had been under the intuition that you could only bless yourself with holy water in a Catholic Church.

Also this morning, in my mass readings I learned that it is Saint Isaac Jogues and Jean de Brebuef and companions Feast day, today.

These saints were the first martyrs of the North American continent. Saint Isaac Jogues had several fingers chewed, burnt and chopped off on his first mission to evangelize. He returned to France, his home. Later deciding that his mission was not done he returned to evangelize and was tomahawked and beheaded.

I only mentioned one of these saints please read more from this detailed article provided by Franciscan Media.

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