Gratitudes 12/2/13:

1. I am so grate*full for my new friend (sooner rather than later to be Fr.), Marc Bentley. Marc is a seminarian at St. Meinrad, and I "met" him on Facebook through a mutual friend of ours, Fr. Tom Farrell.

From the time I was a tween, I have been praying an Advent devotional. 15 prayers my mother called the "Hail and Blessed," and 40 Hail Marys, every day of Advent leading up to Christmas. Well, last week, didn't Marc post up a link to what was called a "St. Andrew novena." IT WAS THE HAIL AND BLESSED! 15 Hail and Blesseds, starting on the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, which is November 30, until Christmas Eve. (Technically I don't think it's a novena, because by definition aren't novenas nine days? So I'll continue to refer to it as a devotion.)

2. I am grate*full for my precious son, who is also named Marc. He is named after his godfather, one of my very best friends, Marc Johnson. I originally sent (soon to be Fr.) Marc a Facebook message to let him know that I had a son Marc whose name was spelled the same way as his. That was how we got to be friends.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting about MY Marc is because I was pushing him through WalMart in a cart yesterday, and his dad, my husband, stopped to look at something and was trying to figure out the best buy, so I pulled Marc close and gave him Eskimo kisses. He says, "Mugga mugga mugga!" It was SO SWEET! Apparently they do that on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood...so...

3. I'm grate*full for Mr. Rogers for creating the character of Daniel Tiger.

4. I'm grate*full for Christmas music on the regular radio.

5. And I'm grate*full to my officemate, who decorated our office.

Love~
Elizabeth