Happy St. Nicholas

Nothing overly "exciting" going on this week! The First Week of Advent has us remembering the Advent songs that we haven't sung in 48 weeks; most of us are resisting the Christmas buying frenzy as much as we can (though I admit publicly to being the purchaser of 62 gifts--online, of course--for the Emmaus Children's Christmas project--kids' clothes are so cute!).

Our weather has continued to fluctuate from the 60s to the 30s, back and forth, up and down. Yesterday we took a walk in the barely-light-of-day, before prayer, and found that the gray and tans and overall bleakness of our woods and surrounding areas have a beauty still---in a strangely sparse and wintry way.

One of our sisters came around the corner of the house yesterday, went to push back the hood on her jacket and almost literally ran into one of our deer. Both were equally shocked. He just stared, she knew enough to just stop and then she saw its twin a few yards away. A rare and up close encounter for sure. They have been closer and closer to the house, especially after sunset.

Here is a sweet little Advent scene in our dining room. Easy to miss, but very nice.

Oh, there was one "wild" thing this week...the St. Benedict Academy annual alumnae Christmas dinner and 92-baskets raffle! Nearly 500 attended and had their usual terrific time.