The Feast of the Unconquered Son

I realise this is a dreadful play on the Latin words.

Sol Invictus. The undefeated sun, from the Sol cult. A late Roman festival, held on 25th December to celebrate this deity  may or may not be responsible for the date we celebrate Christmas.

Saturnalia an earlier festival that started in the third century BC held from 17th December onwards is more often linked to Christmas in modern tradition; but there is no real connection.

But on 25th December I was very happy to celebrate the feast of Gods unconquered Son; even if we don't really have a clue what time of day, what time of of year he was born - or even what year for that matter. 

I would love to know the details, when / where / how.....  Why did Mary go with Joseph? We guess that only males were required to travel to their home towns because of the census. Did Joseph take her away with him because she was an outcast in her own home and town because of her unexpected pregnancy?  Did Mary travel on a donkey? No idea. Did they travel alone or with friends / relatives?

There is a subtle hint that maybe he was not born straight away after they arrived in Bethlehem: "While they were there" the time came for the baby to be born. It was probably not a romantic little stable in a Bethlehem inn (there was after all NO room at the inn). Maybe in a field, or a borrowed house. Some tradition has it that he was born in a cave. Possibly a barn. Barn / stable - what difference. Somewhere poor anyway. He had to be put in a manger to sleep. Sounds awfully scratchy for soft newborn skin.

Shepherds visited him the night after he was born. Shepherds, the lowest of the low - why did God choose them in particular? We hear no more about them - what happened to them after this/ Did any of the shepherds survive to become disciples? Did they bring him a lamb? Not very likely if he was born in mid winter, but there are no clues about this in the Bible. What did the locals think when the shepherds were racketing around Bethlehem celebrating the birth? Did anyone else see the angels?

What did the locals think of the whole thing? How bitter were they about the escape of one child when all the other young boys in their town were massacred? That takes us to the Wise men. Where did they come from? (the 'East' - very informative!) How many were they, did they fully understand the significance of their gifts? Did they follow a star, or simply see a star as the were skywatching at home, then see it again when they finally found their way to Bethlehem? Were they really so naive as to believe Herod? And how old was Jesus when they reached the village? He is called a 'young child' not a baby in that part of the story. And Herod told his soldiers to kill all boys under two, so Jesus was probably at least a toddler.

How did Mary and Joseph feel about it all? I think what would have impressed me most was Jesus' welcome in the Temple, when his parents took him there. Anna and Simeon - wow! What prophecies!

I would love to know about the family's stay in Egypt. How long? What happened? 

The rest of Jesus childhood is almost a closed book. He had siblings; I would guess all younger than him unless they were half siblings as some traditions have it; four brothers and some unnamed sisters.  He lived in Nazareth for some of the time. His father was a carpenter / builder. Was he working on some of Herods great building projects? It would be so good to learn more.

Pup is crazy about the carol 'Once in Royal Davids City' at the moment after learning it in school choir. It has a few lines that had himself and me in hysterics recently:

'Christian children all must be

Mild obedient, good as he'

Our boys mild, obedient?? If this was the young Jesus, then it's a role model they just could not live up to. So maybe it's a good thing that we just don't know what sort of child he was. If he was 'Our childhoods pattern', he would give every child a complex, mine not the least. So I think I'd rather not know some of the details. But the story fascinates me, and I would really love to know more about the incredible story of how Gods unconquered son was made a child, and came to live on Earth.

'Our God contracted to a span,

Incomprehensibly made man'

(from Charles Wesleys hymn  'Let earth and heaven combine')

I want, I want, I want.....

No it's not the kids with their christmas lists, it's me.

The kids don't know what they want. Pup says he 'likes surprises'. When I suggested that nothing was a good surprise he got quite indignant, so I think he does want a christmas present. But I'm the one with the three page wish list on Amazon. Himself struggled very hard to produce a decent wish list for his family, who probably very sensibly don't do surprises (at least then you get something you actually DO want). All he wanted was a Kindle.

And I have been trying so hard to fight my materialist streak this year. Looks like it really is NOT working. of course what I really want is peace on earth, and peace with God for all men. But I don't have that sort of faith.

Ho Hum. Or should I say Ho Ho Ho?

I was wrong

(And mummies aren't wrong very often!)

Pup doesn't need glasses, at least not yet.

Tigs does. 

His teacher says she was not surprised because he was always wanting to be at the front in class and to peer closely at things. So why didn't she tell us? Doh!

Picking his specs up next week. I'm  a bit sad because it will be harder to see his gorgeous long dark eyelashes. I'm a bit worried because he is an anarchist and the wildest of the wild things, and I'm pretty sure that broken glasses will become a normal part of our future. But I hope it will help him concentrate, especially in school.

As for Pup, he is spitting bricks - he was desperate for specs of his own, and his little bro has got there first!

Pup update

Things seem to be piling up for Pup at the moment.

The Docs are not happy with him, as his gastric reflux seems to be getting worse.

He was recently referred to the physiotherapist to try and improve his mobility problems. She says that he has hypermobile joints. This explains in part some of his clumsiness and difficulty with gross and fine motor control, and why he tires so easily.

And we strongly suspect that he needs glasses - he keeps complaining that things look 'fuzzy' and he is reluctant to read at present, especially on the computer. I am surprised as I'm not aware of sight problems in his birth family, that's one family issue we thought he'd escape - both Himself and I come from short sighted families. So it's off to the optician for us this afternoon. I could cry for Pup - he's got so many issues, it's just one more thing he doesn't need to deal with.

He went through a down patch last year, which he seems to be out of. But he still says things that worry me sometimes - like saying he'd like to be dead. Not in a depressed way, but because he wants to go to heaven.

But please don't think he's unhappy.

Life may be harder for him than for most kids, and often he doesn't seem to know which way up he is. But mostly he is laughing.

Dad's birthday

I

It's exactly six months since he died.

I still can't believe it.

One of my favourite pictures of us all together (pretending to be lions!)

Today the cat came to school

It was an accident.

   We were having one of those truly awful school mornings that I think most mums have occasionally. Pup is not an organised child, and he is very distractable; and Tigs is only five and still getting used to the school routine, and would much rather play, thank you very much,  if mum takes her eye off the ball......

The biggest argument for home schooling I know is the awfulness of school mornings. (I still have no plans to homeschool though; I can see the case for it, but  I also know my own shortcomings!)

   Anyway, back to this morning. We left the house ten minutes late, Pup still putting on his shoes and coat. As it is a twelve minute walk  that was serious. I am trying to teach my kids the importance of being on time. (Trying being the operative word here)

   So we were moving fast and not looking behind us. The Kit hasn't followed us for weeks. Then seven minutes into the trip I looked round and there was one wild eyed and panicking kitten just behind us. What to do? Run him back home and be REALLY late? I didn't, I scooped him up and he came along with us. He behaved impeccably until I'd sent Pup into the playground and dropped Tigs off at the office (rather that take him into his classroom with a kitten in arms). Can you imagine the chaos if I went into a class of 30  four and five year olds with a kitten? I can and I didn't want to...) All the way home he squirmed and wriggled, miawed and tried to grab my face. And was he sorry? Not a bit. He got home, demanded his second breakfast and pounded out of the catflap. Not seen him since.

Cats. Who'd have them?

A burial

We had a burial this afternoon. Our soft hearted Tigs was quite distressed, the rest of us were not so bothered. Forensics suggest that the body that Tigs discovered in the garden was murdered quite recently. We suspect that the criminal was ginger. The victim was a rat.

However we haven't convicted the ginger peril. Pawprints found at the scene were not sufficiently clear to make a good case against him, and there are several other suspects; at least one of whom was seen lurking suspiciously in the area the day before.