Gaudete Week

The third Sunday of Advent, or Gaudete Sunday, is a time to rejoice (gaudium is Latin for joy, gaudete means rejoice): the Advent season is halfway through and the time to welcome the Christ-child is close at hand.

So far, we’ve been rejoicing all week! The past few days have been great and we are eagerly anticipating our departure for London on Saturday. I still can’t quite believe how fortunate we are to be here, let alone to have the opportunity to visit so many other incredible places. I will have much to share over the coming weeks…

Getting back to this week: on Sunday we went to Edinburgh with the Catholic Society to see another pantomime. We had a bit of time before the show started to see the city – really only enough to know that we want to go back as many times as we can! Edinburgh is a beautiful city full of great things to discover.

Sunset over the castle esplanade

Edinburgh Castle

Christmas Market

Monday morning Brendan wrote his most difficult exam. He left the house feeling apprehensive but returned jubilant. The exam had gone reasonably well, the best part being that it was now over!!! We spent the rest of the day preparing for the Super Fantastic Marshall Christmas Extravaganza. Brendan made a big pot of chili and I prepared some traditional Marshall and Cogan Christmas goodies (Bill’s scotch cakes and Carolyn’s peanut butter balls). Our guests arrived around 7:30pm and many stayed well into the wee hours of the morning. We had close to 30 people come in and out through the evening, friends from the Catholic Society, Brendan’s classes, and from Baby Sensory. It was a great party, and a testament to me of my husband’s gift for bringing people together. As his best friend Rob said on our wedding day, Brendan takes a big place in the hearts of those who are close to him. He not only makes his presence known by sheer decibels (his is unfailingly the loudest voice in the room!), but also by the way he cares for people. He has definitely made a place for himself here – I could see that from the moment I arrived, and witnessed it again at the Christmas party. I’m glad to know that wherever we go, Brendan and I will be able to create a home where people will feel welcome.

Tuesday was our pre-Christmas gift opening day. Because we would not have been able to bring our gifts from Bill & Susan to the Netherlands, we decided to celebrate our own little Christmas morning here. We chose Tuesday because Brendan still has an exam to study for, but was planning to take a few days off before hitting the books for the last time this semester. So the Christmas party was our mini-Christmas Eve, and Tuesday morning was our mini-Christmas morning! It was fun to celebrate our first Christmas morning together as a family of three… a small foretaste of many family Christmases to come.

Liam checking out the Christmas tree

Opening his gift from Nana & Papa (all by himself ;)

Playing with his brand new wooden duckie!

Today it’s back to work for Brendan. He said he awoke this morning feeling “regenerized,” so hopefully the studying will go well (Meghann, I think you’ve found a rival in word invention!!!). I’m hoping to have a chance to regenerize a bit myself over the next few days, as we have some busy weeks ahead of us!

Our happy little guy!

There's that tongue again!