joy of nine9

Better late than never right? I wrote a post on the feast of St. Stephen for Boxing Day before my brain realized it was Thursday, then my brain shut down late at night and refused to coöperate by writing another post. I am fascinated by the fact that the Church celebrates the death of the first martyr the day after Christmas in the 12 day celebration of Christmas.  God becomes man, then transforms man through  the Holy Spirit as he journeys back to God. Basically St. Stephen’s loving generosity was the reason that Dec. 26 is called Boxing Day; the old English carol Good King Wenceslaus celebrates how King Wenceslaus went out on St. Stephen’s day to bring food and firewood to the poor. The day after Christmas the feast was known as Boxing Day, since masters filled earthen banks or boxes of their apprentices  with money. This was the first form of the piggy bank. small successes

• I was not as rushed on Christmas Eve and had time to be with my adult kids as they arrived and had time even to stop and centre myself in Him; it was a joyful evening.
  

  

• Although I am tiny, I have sleep apnea which means I stop breathing, snore LOUDLY and never get to deep levels of rest.  So, I am always exhausted. As the sleep specialist, a physician, said, ” Basically you sleep like a 75 year-old woman dozing on a bus.” Trying to find a mask to fit my face has been a failure because they do not make children’s size full face masks. Finally a company came out with one extra small mask but I still had to adjust the straps so tightly that I would wake up after an hour or so in pain. Some how, after giving up for months, somehow, I was able to sleep through the night with the mask on!! I woke up the last few days from a deep sleep! This could literally change my life. This is a BIG DEAL. The only drawback is that I am walking around with a bright red mark across the bridge of my nose.