Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Yesterday was fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! So here's a recap of the day: I woke up at 6:00 to get ready to serve the 7:30 mass. Before mass I had to light the candles, and during Christmas, our church uses a candelabra and those candles are annoying. During the mass it  was, like, all seven candles were lit on one side and the other side there were 3-7 candles lit. It looked ridiculous. I lit all of them in the beginning but they all went out. Fr. Joe celebrated. And in his homily,he told a joke: There was a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and a Jewish Rabbi, who were all friends with each other. You know, they played cards together, they hung out a lot. But the two Christians were always trying to get their Jewish friend to convert to Christianity. Then it was near Christmas time and the two Christians received a Christmas card from their Jewish friend. This is  what it said: Roses are red, violets are bluish, when the Messiah comes, you'll wish you were Jewish. It was hilarious. Now fast-forward to the end of mass, when Fr. Joe said " Please turn to page ___ and join me in singing O come, O come, Emanuel." And I muttered under my breath, "I thought Emanuel already came." I was sure he meant O come All Ye Faithful. So mass eneded and Dad and went home, Paul and Mom are still sleeping. I grabed my stocking and Paul's stocking and give Paul's stocking to him. We looked in our stockings and dig out chewing gum, Under Amour socks (those could come in handy for Basketball), Baltimore Ravens pencils, and ear buds. We go to our living room and start unwrapping gifts. Paul got me a purple titanium necklace. I now have a blue one, a orange one, and a purple one, (I need a red one next). I found a square box that was addressed to me. I opened it up. It was a Nike + fuelband! The top thing on my Christmas list! What the fuelband is is a nice watch you can wear around your wrist and it's going to put a number on there and that's going to be your fuel point number. We finished unwrapping presents and Mom and went to the computer to open a Nike fuel account for me. I put it on and went out for a quick run to the edge of my block. Then the rest of the day, we tried out our new presents. I got an Air Hogs helicopter. It didn't last so long. I was flying it and I wasn't watching where I was going and I crashed in to a tree branch and the helicopter lost a wing =(. So Paul and watched Christmas basketball. Until our elderly next door neighbor stopped by for Christmas dinner. Then our cousins from Virginia came. Paul and I started showing our cousin Peter our gifts. Then we ate dinner which was delicious!!!!!!!!!! Then we introduced Peter to our hockey table. And then he used his iPhone 4 to be our D.J. He played some good songs and then we got to... Ganman Style by that idiot Psy. Then the evening came to a close. Everyone went home, and I went to Nike.com  and plugged my fuelband into the computer and uploaded all the data. I had 5,173 fuel points. Then I went to bed. And that was Christmas day.

St. Francis Xavier feast day sacristy tale

Today was my feast day! Last year I didn't serve because I had a cold but I served this year! So I got there, it was dark. Before I looked at the priest schedule, I was, like, please. Don't let it be Fr. Joe. It was Fr. Joe, but he was supposed to sub for Fr. Michael. So I got vested and waited for someone else. But then I realized something. Fr. Joe before mass, usually sits in the front pew praying. But he wasn't there. Then Dad came in and then Mr. Joe one of the men who goes to mass told Dad that Fr. Joe didn't get the memo. So dad called him,  but Fr. Raymond answered and said he would celebrate. When he got there, I asked him if I should replace Fr. Joe's chalice with his. Father said he would use Fr. Joe's. I lit the candles and when I got to the Advent candles, one of them had a ring on them but I lit another one and Paul went to the sacristy to tell me and had to light the one with the ring on it. So I took the one candle out, and lit the ringed one. Stay tuned

Cold sacristy tale

This morning our home-school group had our monthly TLM. I was serving with Will and Fr. Jason celebrated. We had the mass at the small chapel I've been mentioning. So when I got there, I set up the credence table, you know, put the patten the table, the lavabo dish the cruets... The was the weirdest one. I walk downstairs to get the cruets out of the refrigerator (yes, they keep the cruets in the refrigerator), and Will was walking in. I said hi to him and went to the kitchen to get the cruets. That's when things got weird. I open the refrigerator and look on the shelf where they're supposed to be. They weren't there. So I look on the in the door. There they are. I take them out and realize... THE CRUETS ARE FROZEN!!! Well the water was. There was a huge ice cube in it. Paul was looking over my shoulder and walked outside the kitchen to tell my mom, her friend Mr. Jerry, and the sacristan Ms. Theresa. So Mr. Jerry came in and put some water in  the cruet. Not hot water. The cruet would break! So I take the cruets upstairs put them on the credence table, walk back in the sacristy and tell Will. "Don't tell Father," I told him. During mass when Fr. Jason took the cruet from Will to fill the chalice, he gave the cruet an odd look. And during the lavabo, I dribbled the water onto Fr. Jason's hands. But everything worked out fine. After mass he asked us and I told him. And I told him about the time I served for Fr. Michael and I did the lavabo for him. This is what he said.
"Wash me, O Lord from my iniquity. And cleanse me from my sins. Boy, that water's cold."
Ms. Theresa told me how the cruets got into the freezer. The chapel also does Novus Ordo masses. And the altar boy told Ms. Theresa that he couldn't find any room for them on the shelf so he put them in the door. He didn't say the freezer door.

Thanksgiving

Last night, our family went to our cousins house for thanksgiving. They added pier to their house (they live on the water). It was pretty cool. You could see the inner-harbor from there, and the Chesapeake bay. The thanksgiving football game was on. The Texans were playing the Lions. The Texans scored a touchdown and PAT to tie the game. Then the dads and the kids went outside to play football. I scored one touchdown and did Chad Ochocino's touchdown dance (Irish dancing, which I suck at). Then we went in for dinner. All the kids at our table were talking about the Hunger Games. And they were talking about this guy Pita. One of the kids had a book for the Hunger Games. Like a guide book. And the Pita guy looked like Justin Bieber. Then we finished our dinner then all the kids went outside. Paul and I played football with our cousin Scott. The girls (and one boy who was one of the girls' brother) were playing the Hunger Games. Then we both got bored of our games and the girls started playing "Fashion Walk". Scott was camera man. He was using an ipod. Before I go into this, click here.

Emily: Who wants to be judge? (To me) You can.
Me: Forget it!
Emily: Fine. I will.
Scott: Camera Rolling!
Me (whispering to Paul): Time for some "Romo-bombing"!
Emily: First we have: Isabel from New Jersey!
(right now I'm behind Isabel making faces)
Me (to Paul): WHOOO!!! PANDA SHAKE!!! (We do our accustom handshake)
(I go around again, to get ready for Anna)
Emily: Next, Anna from New York City!
(I'm making faces again)
Emily: Now it's time to announce the winners!
(At that I sneak around behind the stage and start jumping up and down, making faces)
Emily: We have Anna with 50 points! And Isabel with 30 points!
Isabel: Let's play again!
Paul: Time for some more Romo-bombing!
(I go around again and Romo bomb Isabel. She noticed me =0)
Isabel: Hey get back here!
Me: AHHHHHH!!!!
(I make another attempt on Anna. Isabel notices me and chases me)
Me: Shoot!!!
Emily: Time to announce the winners!
(again I romo bomb the winners.)
Emily: We have Anna with 60 points! Monkey boy (me), with -100 points, and Isabel with 40 points.
(then they all chase me)
Me: HASTA LA VIESTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Isabel (chasing me into the house): Stay in there!
(I don't)
Me (coming out laughing): HOO! HOO! Consider yourselves ROMO-BOMBED!!
Them: What-o bombed?
Emily: Let's just go to my room where we can really dress up.
Me: That's a good idea. Cause I won't be there to Romo-bomb you.

And the night continued. I went inside, had desert and watched football. The Redskins were killing the Cowboys 28-3. And then we left.

Thanksgiving sacristy tale

First sacristy tale in two months! So I got there early, Father Michael was getting his chasuble ready. I looked at the calender on the wall that says what color to wear that day. The calender said red but I thought, nah. Let's just go with white. And it was the right color =). Fr. Raymond came in and Fr. Michael and I heard a lot of rustling near the back door. Fr. Michael walked back to open the door but Fr. Raymond was already going through the hallway. There was a lot of traffic on the way here," he said. "WHAT?!" How could there be a lot of traffic today?!" He was kidding. Then Deacon Jack came in and then Fr. Joe. Then I was surprised to see a girl about 14 walk in. At first I thought she was in the choir and had to get some music, but I saw her put an alb on and I was like what? I thought I was the only server. And then another girl about my age walked in. And Fr. Raymond said that I would be cross, and the two girls would be candles (sorry. Acolytes. They don't have candles). And I guess that's it.

All saints day.

Our home school group had an all saints day party at a nursing home. We all dressed up as saints and told everyone who our saint was in his own words. I was St. John Berchmans (Patron of altar boys, No offense girls!) And Paul was St. John Neumann (I don't know what he's the patron of). Here is a picture of me talking about St. John Berchmans.



Here is a picture of Paul talking about St. John Nuemann.

Here is a group photo.



I'd like to tell you where I am. But you can't really see me.
Look for me.

Here is a shot of me and Paul

Halloween night.

Last night we went Trick-or-treating with our friend Terry. I was Matt Wieters (O's catcher), Paul was Mike Miller (Miami Heat guard), and Terry was a ninja. Here are some pictures

Paul's jersey is home made. Mine is was a free gift from an O's game

So we started by going down to our dad's old friends' house as we do every year. We didn't do very well (thanks a lot hurricane Sandy!) on our block. But I think the best street we went on was the street behind our house. There was this one house where we waited and then a 14 year old kid answered the door with a bag of Twix. He tried to open it but it didn't open. So he said he would go get his mom. But he couldn't find his mom. And then in the end, he used scissors. Then we continued on. We got back to our street and Paul said "Why don't we stop at our own houses." We stopped at Terry's. It worked but when we got to our house, Mom said "come on in." And that's  how it ended.