Because you are still here reading.... her is my encyclopedia version of my spiritual TRANSFORMATION through Christmas....

Being an American Mom in the late 90's, I had gotten swept up in the vision of a perfect Halmark Christmas, perfect children, perfect Christmas cards, a perfect meal, perfect Christmas tree, perfect decorations and perfect gifts for my whole family... all in ONE day.

What was I thinking...
I had mistakenly conflated perfection with love. Need-less-to say at the end I was exhausted, overspent, sad by disappointing someone I loved and wondering if I had really taught my children about the birth of the Savior, the Prince of Peace. I know for sure I did not model the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Keeping Christ in Christmas is a great thing to say.... but HOW. Our Super Sacred feast day has been totally Secularized. Today I offer you the HOW to keep Christ in Christmas remedy...

Being American/Irish, growing up in a Jesuit parish and being the mother of 3 children we were trying to teach the faith, I wanted to know more, I wanted to know how to get off the Chaotic Christmas merry-go-round and experience God more deeply in our family life…. so I began researching.
In Christmas of 1999 we received a letter from our Parish Priest, Father Russ S.J., may he rest in peace. I was so excited and interested in what he had to say about the 12 Days of Christmas being a code, most likely written by a “wiley Jesuit” from Ireland in the late 1600's.

Again, I began researching and the only resource I could find that referenced this code was created by 2 lovely protestant women and it was a digital download for $19.99. I wondered how they were going to handle the tragic Penal years, the time the original song was most likely written. The creators called this tragic period of Christendom a time of Holy wars, well there was nothing Holy about this period of persecution, as witnessed by the lives of the Irish Martyrs. In addition, persecution is not a war, nor is it Holy.

Reluctantly, I bought the digital download packet, it was a true labor of love by the creators, it had crafts and prayers for every day of Christmas.

I was a little overwhelmed because it felt like LOTS of easy steps to a perfect Christmas.

This got me thinking about how we were celebrating Christmas as a family, how could we simply refocus our attention on the gifts of God to celebrate more fully.

Then it hit me... start with the song... so I did, I along with the help of my family we wrote the lyrics to "Our Father Gave To Us the 12 Days of Christmas. Then the challenge to live it actually came in.

No matter how hard I planned, shopped or tried I always came up short, exhausted, disappointed someone and oh yeah.... over spent our budget.

Producing Christmas for your family is almost another full time job, especially if you are attention deficit challenged like me.

This is where the meaningful transformation came into my life and our lives.

If Christmas is truly a season that begins on Jesus's Birthday, after observing and preparing during Advent, then celebrating it had to be more than 12 hours of frenzied Merry Making.

Celebrating Christmas all 12 Days, gave me a gift, for the first time as a mother, I was able to enter more deeply into the spiritual reality that we were celebrating the birth of the prince of peace because including God's gifts of faith shifted our family focus ! Getting off the manic madison avenue merry-go-round was a relief.

More on the research process...
When I first began researching the code theory, I first encountered controversy, you can’t prove it the NY times said to the priest who found the 17th century letters in the Georgetown library while researching his doctoral thesis in the early 1960’s. Not true cried SNOPES, because Protestants and Catholics basically believe the same thing, ( ignorance of history is bliss…).

Now I happen to believe Father Stockert's testimony, however when I sent SNOPES the good news along with Father's interview Matthew from the fine organization basically called Father Stockert a Liar. I did not know Father for many years but I did learn very quickly that he was an honorable man who had dedicated himself to living the Gospel. Pray for us Father Stockert!

The controversy over the authentication of the 12 Days of Christmas song as we know it as a Code, written by Catholics during a period of tragic persecution will not be resolved until we find the letters Father Stockert found in the early 60’s. In the mean time I have written a song to match the probable code and have transformed our family’s Christmas celebration for generations to come. Hopefully it will bless your family too! Blessings!

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