O Antiphons - Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

~O Clavis David (O Key of David) - December 20~

This particular antiphon says, "O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens..."

So, going along with the house imagery, we assembled a gingerbread house on this day! The mention of a key and opening/shutting made us think about the door to a house as well.

I bought this kit on clearance for a couple bucks at Sam's a few days after December 25th last year and saved it... so there was no tasting of the building materials!! Quite frankly, the icing was awful. I don't know if it had gotten old or if it was normally that thick and non-sticky... but once it dried, it held everything very well!

My Girl Scout troop used to make and sell gingerbread houses (from scratch!) at our church bazaar each year, and it was one of my favorite things we did. It will be lots of fun to see the gingerbread house-decorating evolve as the girls get older and able to do more on their own and come up with detailed decorating ideas! (I was known for my "Big Red Roof of Gum" gingerbread houses!)

I thought the directions were hilarious, so I included a photo. They were written by a control freak or something... notice that if a piece of the gingerbread breaks, you are commanded "DO NOT BE DISTRESSED." This photo doesn't show it, but there were also gingerbread ornaments to be decorated and hung on the Christmas tree, and the directions stated specifically in bold type that "once you have placed ornaments on the tree, remember that they are there for decoration only and should not be eaten." I'll be looking out my window for the Gingerbread House Kit Police, then...

The finished house

~O Oriens (O Rising Dawn): December 21~

We went to look at Christmas lights this evening, since the antiphon mentions "brightness of light eternal" and how we await Jesus's coming to "enlighten those who sit in darkness." I made hot chocolate for us to all sip as we drove around different neighborhoods, and the girls love that they get to go in their pajamas! Oh, and did you know that hot liquids aren't supposed to go in sippy cups with valves? I did, but I didn't care. ;-P If you loosen the lid slightly and re-tighten it after taking a small sip, it is less likely to spew everywhere! ;)

Interesting also that this antiphon about light falls on the longest night of the year - knowing the Catholic Church, that was probably intentional!

~O Rex Gentium (O King of the Gentiles): December 22~

"O King of the Gentiles and their desired one, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth."

We baked a bunch of banana bread to give as gifts today... cornerstones. They are brick-shaped. Easy enough, huh? This is actually coconut banana bread, which is delicious!!

Here's the "cornerstone" that we ate!

~O Emmanuel: December 23~

"O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God."

Ero Cras: Tomorrow, I come.

We made a birthday cake for baby Jesus today! We'll share it with family on the evening of Christmas Day.

It's an eggnog cake, which has a strange frosting - it's made with granulated sugar, which makes tinting some of the frosting difficult. It's really rich and definitely a once-every-few-years kind of dessert!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve - no antiphon since the vigil Mass tomorrow is technically the start of the Christmas season!