When I was a girl, Santa Claus always came while we were at Midnight Mass. It was one of my favorite traditions. We would get home around 1:00 am, the tree would be ablaze with lights and the presents were heaped in piles around it. It was years before I figured out how it was done, and it kept me believing in elves and magic long after my friends had decided that such things were for babies. I can remember... Read more

My brother’s family came over today to celebrate Christmas and family while my Mom was in town. Which means that I got to spend the day with my handsome nephew and my gorgeous nieces. I love them all, but there’s one niece that I just seem to click with better than the others. It’s been that way from the very beginning. We just seem to “get” each other. Like today….she brought handmade Christmas cards for everyone in my family except... Read more

I can remember years when the big kids were younger, and I was too, that I was done with Christmas long before Gaudete Sunday. I would start shopping in January for the next Christmas – catching the perfect gifts on sale and packing them away until sometime in November when I’d lay them out and see what else had to be done. I made lists of things to do, things to buy, and things to make. The tree went up... Read more

I went to Mass early yesterday morning. My eldest daughter had choir rehearsal, so we arrived almost an hour before Mass began. I sat down in our usual pew and looked across the church…..and look who I spotted seated in the next to last pew over by the Baptismal font! It’s not the best picture. I was using my phone across the church and trying to be discreet…but do you see him? Dressed all in red with a long white... Read more

Today our eldest son went on a field trip with his Confirmation class to the seminary in our diocese. He’s been talking about the priesthood since he was five years old, and has been looking forward to this trip since he first heard about it back in August. When I picked him up this evening he was glowing. He chattered all the way home about the school itself and the students he had met on his tour. He had asked... Read more

I have no idea how long I sat there watching near misses and waiting for impact before the lights on the dash faintly flickered and then began to glow brighter. The on-again-off-again alternator had begun to charge the battery once more. I pushed the hazard button and heard the reassuring click clack of the lights turning on and off. I whispered a prayer and then turned the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered and tried to start. My heart... Read more

It was still raining by the time I hit Houston. I was trying hard to ignore the battery light on my dash and mostly succeeding. Every so often, I glanced at my GPS and smiled as the time to my destination dropped under an hour and then a half hour. As I came into Houston proper, the highway widened to five lanes in each direction and I took the middle of the five. The rain was pretty heavy by now... Read more

I bravely fought the battle to stay awake before losing it to exhaustion somewhere around 3am. Someone tried my door around 1:30, and while I’m assuming that it was the drunk cowboys who checked in next door, I’ve never been so happy to have rearranged furniture in my life. That table and chair pile might not have stopped anyone, but it would have slowed them down. Saturday morning was even grayer than Friday had been. The persistent mist had given... Read more

(Need to catch up? Go here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.) I went in search of somewhere to stay for the night. In a town of 1600, I wasn’t sure what I would find. With a car running on battery power only, I didn’t want to attempt driving any further than I had to. I grabbed some fried chicken from a drive-thru, then crossed the highway and found a motel with the “vacancy” sign lit. It looked... Read more

(In case you missed part 1, go read it here. We’ll wait for you to catch up.) After driving past it twice, I finally found the mechanic shop. The faded sign in front said something I interpreted as “battery and alternator,” but it’s possible that I was just imagining it. There were no lights on inside the building, and the junk strewn about the yard made it look uninhabited. I stopped the car and reminded myself “best mechanic I know.”... Read more