Picking up where Kurt left off, here’s what we did this week:

On Tuesday morning, I helped with rehearsal for the Kennedy Park Carol Service. They are learning a lower harmony part for “O Holy Night,” both for beauty and because 12-year-olds can’t all get up to a high E-flat. Dan and I got everything squared away for Kennedy Park’s upcoming class Mass, and Jess and Kurt took their day off. That night, Dan attended a meeting for the International Eucharistic Congress, to talk about events around the bell that will be at the parish in January.

By the time Wednesday rolled around we were all in the office working on slide-shows and music library tasks for the upcoming weekend. Jess and Kurt went back to Scoil Mhuire (which I have just learned is pronounced “Skul Wee-ruh”) to continue carol rehearsals. “O Come All Ye Faithful” proved much more successful than “The Wexford Carol” did on Monday. That evening, Dan made shepherd’s pie (yummmm) and Jess made chocolate cheesecake (yummmm)! I was blessed to have such a wonderful, pun-practiced community with whom to celebrate my birthday. We finished the day with choir rehearsals for the first Sunday of Advent!

Thursday was, as you all know, Tanksgivin’. The parish helped us to celebrate Tanksgivin’ Day Mass at the daily 10:00am, complete with a harvest-y sacred space built by Jess.

Then, they gave us an extra-fancy Tanksgivin’ Tea (because that is how you celebrate Tanksgivin’). There were fancy dishes and coffee cake. It was a good thing the ladies’ grandkids were there to share their toy vegetables with us for a balanced tea diet. We took the rest of the day off and Jess took charge of the kitchen, with this result in the evening for our small company:

Today we are back in the office and the schools rehearsing for class Masses next week. Jess and Kurt are just about to go to the recording studio to finish up our Advent reflection series. You can listen to Dan’s reflection on the first Sunday of Advent here, at 8:30pm GMT on Sunday. (That’s 3:30pm EST, 2:30 CT, 1:30 MT, and 12:30 PT). Personally, I am excited to celebrate Advent as a season in itself, without the finals stress and early Christmases of the college world. Happy New Year, and good luck to our friends in the States as the new translation goes into effect!