Well, the last day of school has arrived for the year amid a flurry of activity. We had ornaments to make, songs to practice and a concert to perform. In the middle of it all, we visited the monastery. What fun!

The monastery trip was our Christmas Concert rehearsal, service project and super snack time. Since I live there, the kids call the field trip a visit to “Sister Stefanie’s house.” 🙂

As always, the children are absolutely darling as they sing and dance for the elder Sisters. Afterwards, the kids sit down for special cookies and milk. Sister Mary Jane – a retired kindergarten teacher – knows just what to say to each child. Sisters Jozefa and Michelle give out free hugs.

The ornaments we made earlier in the week for our Christmas service project are strung now on the dining room Christmas tree. Each has a photo of a Sister on it!

These children – like any! – say the darnedest things:

“Wow! Your house is as big as a hotel”

“Your Dad must be really old to have all those daughters.”

“Look, Sister Stefanie has a church in her house!”

“You have a lot of Grandmas at your house.”

“Sister Stafanie has her own big library and lots of books.”

The preschoolers are right! I do have a big house, lots of daughters and grandmas, books and a church. I love my ministry and I love my home. If you would like to know more, ring in the New Year with an email to me and I’ll share everything I can: smacdonald@smmsisters.org