The real 12 Days of Christmas and Season of Epiphany

Dear Friends,

What really makes me sad, is that we celebrate Advent as a pentiential season and then Christmas day comes - however, all the "Christmas decorations" are gone in the stores and they are looking for the next thing to celebrate. 

It makes me want to cry out, "Do you not know that Jesus came to have us celebrate this wonderful 12 days of Christmas and even beyond?!!" In our house, we do Epiphany gifts, plus we also keep our artifical tree up thru February 2nd. (A real tree would get too dried out to last that long.) Another thing that made me sad this year, I could find real Christmas trees around Thanksgiving, but halfway thru December all trees were just GONE already except maybe a Charlie Brown one I saw at the store a few days before Christmas. Why don't we have some real trees available in LATE December? I really thinking about growing some Christmas trees that can be made available for the REAL season. This is ridiculous. Another thing that made me sad, even some families could not celebrate together Christmas Mass because of illnesses and then stupid "covid" restrictions, etc. At least glad that the CDC is saying 5 days instead of 14 - thank you. The joy of Christmas season needs to be focused on the 12 days - esp. the first week which is like the octave of Christmas is a special week of celebration and acts like each day is Christmas again!! I can't stop wanting to celebrate this season. Oh, and I had another allergic reaction day after Christmas - I recently found out I have a corn allergy - well, stupid corn syrup was hidden ingredient in something I ate. Oh, never again will I be so hasty to eat anything. That was very upsetting. I hope you never get a corn allergy. Anyway, back to Christmas - you got to wake up each day and Thank God for the real Christmas season - and think of ways to celebrate the real season - here are a few below:

1. Watch a Christmas movie! 2. Eat popcorn with your movie (for those non-allergic- LOL). 3. Listen to Christmas music 12 times over and annoy your neighbors!! 4. Have a Real Christmas party and invite your friends over to enjoy real Christmas season. 5. Dance - party whether with friends or just family - have a dance party! 6. Enjoy eating what you want - no penance season! 7. Be thankful - send thank you cards to all who gave you gifts. 8. Don't forget to celebrate Epiphany with shoes at the door on January 5th and put candy or fun treats in them for your kids! 9. Remember to celebrate in a joy ful way - make some popcorn and string it on your tree or whatever you like to put on your tree. 10. Keep the tree up till February 2nd - the Purification of Mary! Amen!