Most Holy Name of Mary - Plans

The only celebration of Our Lady's birthday we were able to muster around here on Saturday was a less than rousing but totally heartfelt rendition of "Happy Birthday" before bed and a much needed glass of wine for the grown ups. Usually I would have made a cake and had a little birthday party for our perfect little Mother in Heaven, but we were supposed to have guests and well... you know the rest. (see below)

To be totally honest, we have never had a big party for Mary's birthday in the past since we decided long ago to celebrate the Most Holy Name of Mary as Sunshine's nameday. She is named for the Blessed Virgin so when she was a chubby wee pink thing we chose the 12th as her nameday and asked Our Lovely Lady to guide her and keep her close.

Sunshine has always been my most easy going child who is always up for trying something new. This year, we are going to try our hand at making Turkish Crescents (croissants). To find out why you can check out what catholicculture.org has to say about it here (along with the recipe) and here. Of course we will serve coffee (maybe even Viennese Coffee) with our croissants and, going with the "moon theme", possibly make some more Czechoslovakian Moon Cookies, if time permits, since they were such a big hit when we made them last December.

The activity for the day will be decorating the names of Mary. Last year we used international variations of Mary's name like Miryam, Maria, Maura, or Mai. I printed them out using a fun, mostly "hollow" font like (Alphasnail or Colorfont) and large enough to fill the page. Then I let the children use stickers, markers, glitter glue, or whatever they wanted to decorate Mary's names. I am sure there are better fonts out there so I might have to hunt for some new ones. Since my girls have been enjoying their paints a lot lately, I might trace out the names on some watercolor paper and let them go to town.

Anyway, that's what our day will look like on Wednesday unless there are more surprises in store for us. Husband is still working on the new job front (his company is closing) and prayers would be very appreciated. Ideally, I would love to have his commute shortened but will be satisfied with some place he enjoys going to everyday. Enjoy the rest of your Monday!