As December 17th rolled around, excitement was in the air with the approach of Christmas, and decorations began appearing everywhere. You can judge a nun’s personality based on her cookie decorating approach - does she meticulously decorate just a few cookies, or excitedly ice as many as possible?

But the most special Christmas decoration of all this year was a brand new vestment for Christmas, made by Sr. Mary Catharine! It came out absolutely beautiful and added a special note to the solemnity.

Our Christmas Masses were beautifully fitting for the feast. Some of the novitiate sisters played an instrumental arrangement of carols before Midnight Mass. And Sister Mary Martin, despite having broken her thumb earlier in the month, accompanied the offertory Spanish carol, “En La Noche,” playing with just four fingers in her left hand! We concluded Midnight Mass by singing “O Magnum Mysterium” (the setting by Victoria), a stunningly beautiful piece of polyphony to the text of an antiphon from the old office, which translates, “O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the newborn Lord lying in a manger. O blessed virgin, whose womb was worthy to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia!”

The Christmas celebration always concludes in the evening with the prioress opening the gifts the community has received. This year, friends of the monastery bought a selection of puzzles and games, one for each sister - hence the laughter in some of the pictures as each sister opened hers!