Christmas Highlights

By far, the best Christmas present I received was having ALL FIVE of my boys home for the holidays!  Now that 2 of them are in college, I cherish the times that we can all be together more than ever.  

Joseph had lots to share with us when he came home from Christmas because he had just spent a semester abroad in Austria!!!  To me, it was miraculous that he was even able to go to Austria during this crazy Covid time in history.  He was even able to visit Ireland, France, Rome, Assisi, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and (my personal favorite) Medjugorje!!!  He was able to go all of those places without getting vaccinated, and he said that not one single Franciscan University student ever tested positive for Covid during the entire semester even though they had to get tested weekly in order to travel!!!  Modern day miracle for sure.  Surely a semester he will never forget.  God is good!

Here are just a few photos from his overseas adventures:

This was his campus in Gaming, Austria, called the "Kartause".

It was an old monastery that was converted into the Franciscan University Study Abroad Campus.

Joseph with some of his best buddies on one of their MANY hiking adventures.

The famous Mont Blanc is in the distance.

I was so happy he was surrounded by fun, holy friends!

Joseph with the  Alps behind him.

Joseph the "tree elf" :)

Joseph got to spend lots of time with his girlfriend Bailey in Austria

because she also did the Franciscan Study Abroad program.

What a lovely fraulein she is!

Joseph seems pretty smitten with beautiful Bailey...

and we like her a lot too :)

We were blessed to finally meet her in person during Christmas break.

We think she is a beautiful, sweet and a holy young lady!

May God bless and guide Joseph and Bailey on their vocational journeys!

Paul and the boys standing by our future Christmas tree :)

Dominic hauling our Christmas tree to the car.

Paul is happy his only job was cutting down the tree and not carrying it this year :)

We had a lovely gathering with some of our dearest friends who invite us every year to cut down a Christmas tree on their property.

Paul and I on Christmas Eve--still in love, still abundantly blessed!

Isaiah was the first child awake on Christmas morning to dig into his stocking! :)

He was happiest with his new little "hog" from his Secret Santa (Joseph--"the hog").

I'm not sure how Joseph inherited the nickname "hog," but that's what his little brothers call him.

That's why Isaiah was so tickled to get a baby hog from him :)

Isaiah checking out his new baseball cards while all his brothers are still sleeping.

Nathanael was the 2nd child awake on Christmas morning.
He was most excited about the baseball cards he found in his stocking.

Isaiah was happy to get a Miguel Cabrera card,

and Nathanael was thrilled to get Yadier Molina.

Joseph got his little brothers a new chess set from Austria!

Four of the boys happy on Christmas morning with the gifts they found in their stockings.

The 5th boy (Michael) was still sleeping :)

Dominic happy with the new ear buds he got for Christmas.

The boys with their new LEGO sets.

Michael was the last one to wake up, but the first one who wanted to play chess on Christmas day.

For Christmas, Joseph got us new rosaries from Medjugorje 

and a new Marian icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa from Poland.

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

PERFECT saint quote for the New Year

“During this new year I resolve to begin a new life. I do not know what will happen to me during this year. But I abandon myself entirely to you, my God. And my aspirations and all my affections will be for You. I feel so weak, dear Jesus, but with Your help I hope and resolve to live a different life, that is, a life closer to You.”

— SAINT GEMMA GALGANI

Fall Flew By...Here's a Flurry of Photos :)

Happy Fall Y'all!  (Oh wait...it's actually winter...oh wait, it's actually 2022!).  Oh well, I'm behind schedule again, but I'm still persevering at getting these photos on my blog for posterity sake---even if they are late!  :) 

Our Fall was full of blessings and it sure flew by!  We had the start of school.  Dominic started a new school at Jefferson High School in Boulder.  The little boys are at Montana City School for the 2nd year in a row and THEY LOVE IT!  It is such a great feeling in this momma's heart every morning when the kids are happy and excited to go to school.  I am not a big believer in public school (I know it my heart that Catholic School or homeschooling are usually better options), but so far it has been a good experience for us so far and I feel this is where are kids are supposed to be (for now anyway).  We will just keep taking one year at a time, continually asking the Holy Spirit to guide us.

Another big Fall highlight was Isaiah being trained as an altar server.  He is our youngest, and after having watched all 5 of my boys be trained to serve at the Lord's holy altar, I must say that it is one of the most precious memories in my heart that I will treasure of each of my holy sons who love the Lord.  Some of my sons like serving more than others...and I must say that I think Isaiah seems to like it most of all.  He is so proud to be serving, wants to serve every weekend, and totally takes the job seriously.  So precious!

Another big Autumn event was Dominic's first year in high school cross country.  He made the VARSITY team as a FRESHMAN!!!  At almost every meet he improved his personal best time, and he got his very best time at the State Championships with a great time of 18:30---that's basically a 6 minute mile averaged over 3.1 miles total!)  He had an awesome coach (such a positive, Christian guy who taught the kids to have fun while working hard at the same time), and he met some great friends (which was such a blessing since he didn't really know any kids at JHS as a new coming Freshman).  We are so proud of him and are so happy that he loves running so much!  I guess he is taking after my older brothers who are marathon runners :)

Here is Coach Karson with the team at the State tournament

And, of course, we had our big All Saints Day Party on Halloween.  This year we had 4 other families join us, so that made things extra fun!  It was very cold outside, but we were able to do a couple of games outdoors before coming inside for the rest of the festivities.  Dominic chose to be St. Hubert the hunter, Nathanael was St. Pope JPII, and Isaiah was St. Sebastian.  They made Saint-O-Lanterns based on the saints they chose to be, and I think they turned out quite well this year.  We really love this tradition, and so far they have never seemed disappointed about not participating in trick-or-treating.  The always get plenty of treats by the end of the evening, and good wholesome fun with other Catholic families.

Paul: St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

Maria:  St. Grimonia (Irish hermitess)

Dominic:  St. Hubert

Nathanael:  St. JPII

Isaiah: St. Sebastian

The Cronk family kids all dressed as saints

The kids playing a St. Patrick relay race game, 

trying to get all the snakes out of Ireland the fastest!

Our St. Sebastian Aim for Heaven Game

(kids are supposed to aim for the "heaven target" NOT for St. Sebastian :)

This is the "Ping Pong Purgatory Game" :)

The goal is to bounce a ping pong ball into the white "heaven" cup (filled with candy),

or at least the green "purgatory" cups (1 piece of candy), 

and to avoid the red "hell" cups (no candy).

Nathanael playing "Toss the Halo on the Saint"

The youngest Cronk kid hitting the pinata :)

CANDY TIME!!!

Happy Feast of All Hallow's Eve!

And last but not least, we celebrated Nathanael's 11th birthday this Fall.  He wanted to invite his best friends over to play football, spike ball, and some crazy indoor games.  They had a blast, and I am so happy God has blessed him with such great friends at his new school!

Happy Birthday Nate the Great!

This year you somehow became "Nate."

You will always be Nathanael to me though :)

Even though you changed your name,

I hope you never change being YOU...

You are holy, kind, crazy-smart, athletic, and competitive;

You are helpful at home, very loved, and a great friend!

You are double-sticks (11 years old!)

and I hope God blesses you DOUBLE this year!

I love you more than all the baseball cards you own,

plus more than all the cards you wish you had!

Love,

Mom