Friday, December 23, 2011

It's been many years since I've made cannoli completely from scratch. I made some last year, but cheated and bought the shells. Tonight I made some shells. Nicola requested cannoli from scratch for family Christmas night dinner. Here you go, Neener Beaner!!

I spent the day with Claire and Clayton.  We puttered around the house, and then after dinner we went to run some errands and buy a Christmas present for their daddy.  We started at the church where I unloaded some gifts for the staff.  Clay and Claire are always fascinated with the interior of St. Mary's Church.  Clay says he always feels like someone is watching him.  I turned on the Christmas lights so they could see how pretty everything looked.  Then we took Fr. Thai his Christmas gifts so Clay and Claire could meet him.

After locking the church back up, we spent a while in the "castle park" behind the church.  Then we headed to St. Louis to Mount Saint Joseph to drop off a few more gifts.  From there we went to the dollar store so they could buy Daddy's present.  They decided they needed chocolate animal cookies, and since there weren't any at Dollar Tree, we went to Walmart.  They each bought a snack for the SA bell ringer, they talked me into buying some of Grandpa's cereal for them to take home (they love his Honey Nut Cheerios), and then we we needed to get to Wendy's because we were all hungry.  (And we forgot to buy the animal cookies.)

We pulled into Wendy's and they each wanted chicken nuggets and a Frosty.  I learned earlier in the summer that a Frosty and a milkshake are NOT the same thing.  Claire had been complaining all day that her stomach hurt.  Since it usually coincided with her not getting her own way about this or that, I didn't really take it seriously.  However, shortly after we sat down at our table she started to cry and complain that her tummy hurt her.  She came over to stand beside me and to tell me that she felt like she was going to hurl.  And hurl she did - all over my tray, her skirt, and my jeans.  Clay started making wretching noises so I made him go around the corner until Claire felt better.  The couple behind us gave me a stack of napkins. (Bless you!!)  As I hustled Claire to the ladies room I heard them chuckling over Clay's comment "whew,  at least she didn't puke on MY food."  Hmmmmmm.

Word of the day:
Feast of the Church : The Great O Antiphons: "O Emmanuel"
Saint(s) of the day : St. John of Kanty, Priest (1390-1473), St. Servulus († c. 590)
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:57-66.

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,but his mother said in reply, "No. He will be called John."
But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name."
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name," and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.