Yay! We made Fr. Z's blog again this year! He only publishes a few Christmas cards each year. We're 2 for 3. Ok, he didn't spell Tisdale properly, but so what? Merry Christmas Fr. Z.

With or Without Kids

Today is Emilie's baptism day. I've been up since 5am, clearly too excited to get back to sleep. I was reading some Fr. Z. Here is a made up, yet very true, example of how contraception kills a marriage, and how children aid a marriage:

Within the first few years of marriage even the most “in love” couples will have moments where they don’t particularly care for each other. Perhaps they have a vicious argument. The husband, at work, dreads going home to face his wife and to merely dive back into the argument. He can hardly stand to look at her. So, he goes out for a beer with his work colleagues. Then a second. Then a third. It becomes easy to avoid each other, the argument never gets resolved, and Satan has his way – he has driven a couple apart from each other.  [CUT TO BLACK – ABRUPT MINOR CHORD]

A second scenario. The husband is at work and dreads going home to face his wife, but he knows that she is home with his infant son. He may not want to see his wife, but he is still in love with, and fascinated by his baby boy. So he goes home, perhaps grudgingly, but he goes home. He avoids his wife, but goes into the room where his baby is sleeping. He picks up this child and the emotional and psychological feelings of love – the ineffable parental bond – fill his heart. As he looks at the child whom he loves, the baby wakes up and smiles. He has his mothers dimples. He is reminded of the commitment of love he has for his wife. He takes the child into the living room and holds him out to his mother. He has his fathers eyes. The two resolve to sit down and work on their disagreement.  [THE MUSIC SWELLS]

A little florid?  Sure.  But don’t kid yourselves.  This is how life works.  It is how the Enemy of the Soul works and it is how we are hard wired to work.

A home run Father Z.

Christmas Cards

We've accomplished our life long dream. We can now die in peace. What was this dream? To make it on Fr. Z's blog, of course. Fr. Z, our favourite priest blogger, posted his address and invited people to send him Christmas cards. So we did. You can see it here.

Speaking of Christmas cards. Here is ours.

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  The Millette Family Christmas Letter: 2015

SPOILER ALERT REGARDING THE EXISTENCE OF SANTA CLAUS:

Welcome to our second annual Christmas letter. I almost didn’t get a chance to make this year’s letter. I was very nearly carried away by an angry mob of grade 3ers the other day. You see, we were playing a little acting game for drama class and I was having them act out fairy tale characters, and other such characters who are not real. I was giving some suggestions to them: “Rapunzel, Buzz Lightyear, Santa Claus…,” when I nearly had my head taken off. “What do you mean Santa!?!” Whoops. I guess it slipped out. “Did I say Santa?” “Yes!” they responded in shock. “What do you mean? Santa is real. What are you saying?!” I stammered for a while, visions of endless phone calls from angry parents dancing in my head... “Umm, uh.. yeah, I meant, um… I meant… I meant the ones at malls who pretend they are Santa, but aren’t…” “You mean the ones who don’t have real beards?” a boy piped up. “Yeah, that’s how you tell if it’s the real Santa, by the beard,” replied a little girl. “That’s right,” I carried on, with confidence, “those mall Santas who don’t have real beards… very disappointing... that’s how you know.” And so class carried on. My job was safe. More like my life was safe.

Such is the state of Christmas. It’s all about Santa. More accurately, it’s all about presents. Joseph, now 4 years old, is intrigued by the idea of Santa Claus. We talked to him about St. Nicholas, but he still comes back to talking about Santa. Who is this person who gives gifts? We tell him it’s baby Jesus. He seems skeptical. But it is baby Jesus. I’m convinced. All gifts. All presents. All blessings. They all come from baby Jesus. It’s his birthday. He is real. Beard or no beard. And truly, the only real question is not whether or not Santa is real, or fake bearded. The real question is: what are we giving Jesus for Christmas?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

From Dan, Becca, Joseph, and John Paul

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“Why don’t you instead tell the people how our year went?” asked Becca. “Why would I do that? If they want they can just read our blog instead! You know: millettefamily.blogspot.ca/” answered Dan.

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            A Busy Year             

March 27 – John Paul turns one. He then promptly quits nursing and starts potty training. No, actually that still hasn’t happened.

April 24 – Becca and the boys meet Roughrider star Weston Dressler.

May 1 – Grandma and Grandpa Bear come to visit. The first of three visits this year.

July 2–15 – Becca gets a new bathroom. Danny gets a new respect for plumbers.

August 4 – We officially buy our “new van”. A 2011 Grand Caravan. It’s Momma Mary blue.

September 1 – Danny enters his fourth year of teaching at Tisdale Elementary School. This year’s assignment is Phys. Ed. and Arts Ed. prep coverage for grades 2-5.

October 3 – Becca makes spring rolls. No, actually that still hasn’t happened.

December 2 – As we sit brainstorming our year the thought finally dons on us: We did nothing this year.

                              

                        

Boy oh Boy, More Quotes:

Mommy: “Who do you want to pray for?” John Paul: “Papa (Grandpa), Mama (Grandma), MeeMee (Uncle Stephen), Mommy, Daddy…” Joseph: “No John Paul!!! That’s too many people!”	Joseph, playing with the drawstring on his pants: “when there’s no pee coming, you tie your pants.”
Heard from the living room… Joseph: “John Paul, you hit me and I’ll hit you!”	Joseph: “Let’s have a family hug, with no John Paul!”
Daddy: “Joseph, you need to wear a mask if you want to help me smash the bathroom.” Joseph: “Yeah, I could wear a tiger mask!”	Mommy to Daddy at one in the morning: “You’re taking up half the bed, go sleep with Joseph.”
Mommy: “Joseph, who do you want to pray for?” Joseph: “St. John Paul the Second.” Mommy: “Um, he’s already in heaven. Who do you want to pray for?” Joseph: “…St. Joseph… is he in heaven?”	Catching John Paul (18 months) in the living room all by himself, two remotes in his hands, and watching TV while lounging against the couch… Mommy: “What are you doing?!?” John Paul: “Daddy!”
Joseph, while colouring his lent day-tracking calendar: “I’m going to colour them all in, then it will be Easter.”	Daddy: “Joseph! You’re knocking your food onto the ground!” Joseph: “That’s ok, John Paul can eat it.”
Joseph, with a huge smile on his face, running out of his room to us first thing in the morning: “Guess what!?! I had the goodest dream ever!!!!” Daddy: “What did you dream about?” Joseph: “I dreamed I learned how to run faster!!!” *he then runs around the house for the next 5 minutes*

Catering to Others

You gotta love Fr. Z. Maybe we're doing things all wrong. Maybe this is the New Evangelization. I love the part about Immaculate Mary. Read his take:

When they come to destroy your business because you are pro-traditional family

Posted on 2 April 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’ve been thinking about how homosexualists target Christian businesses for destruction.  Approach a florist or a bakery or, now, a pizzeria and tell the owner that this is for a homosexual “wedding” and then hammer them with law suits.

Enough already.  It’s time for everyone to calm down.

We need a new approach.

Think about this.

When some homosexual couple comes to your Christian business for services at their immoral event, don’t panic.  Go ahead and take their business!

Then explain what is going to happen next.

Tell them that the food and services will be just fine.  And then inform them that all of the money that they pay for the services will be donated to a traditional pro-family lobby.   If it is something like catering, where your employees have to be there to provide services, tell them that all your people will smile, be professional, and everyone of them will be wearing crucifixes and have the Holy Family embroidered on their uniforms.  Then show them pictures of your uniforms.  When the truck pulls up, speakers will be playing Immaculate Mary.  Show them the truck and play the music.

“Oh, you would be offended by that?  I’m so sorry.  You approached us because we are Christians. Right?  We are happy to provide services for you and we are grateful that you chose to come to our Christian catering business.  We just want to be of help.”

Then tell them that you will take out an ad in the paper to let everyone know what you did with their money, thanking them by name for their business so that you could make the contribution.

I suspect this approach, if adopted far and wide, would put an end to attacks on Christian businesses.