On-Line Christmas shopping is just around the corner! You can continue to support our school with your Amazon purchases. You can quickly set up an account on the Amazon site. Select St. Germaine as your preferred charity. Amazon rebates 0.5% of your qualified purchase automatically.

Smile.amazon.com

Manna Program Christmas Special Orders

Our last special order will be placed on Monday, December 9th. We will continue to sell the stock we have on hand until Thursday, De-cember 19th. We usually are out of most items by then, so be sure to get your orders in quickly. The Christmas sales are usually our biggest profits of the year. If you would like to share the information with friends and relatives, we can certainly accommodate their orders!

Advent, 2019 Rejoice with Joseph

As we begin the season of Advent, our parish theme looks carefully at St. Joseph and his role in the story of our sal-vation. Joseph takes a strong “supporting role” in many of the nativity stories and tra-ditions. Scripture has very few references to Joseph. It is Joseph who receives the message from an angel to reassure him that Mary and the baby she was carrying were part of God’s plan. It was Joseph who received the warning about Herod’s plan to destroy the child and who fled with the Holy Family into Egypt. It was Joseph, who, with Mary, took Jesus to the temple for the presentation. It was Joseph, too, who searched for the missing Jesus at a Jerusalem Passover celebration. But, to understand the character of Joseph, we need to prayerfully reflect on what lies be-hind the few events in the scripture ac-count. Joseph was a model for Jesus of what human fatherhood looked like. In the day-to-day life in Nazareth, it was Joseph who provided strength and support for the Holy Family. This Advent season, members of the parish will be invited to reflect together more deeply about the character of St. Joseph. The book, Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Joseph, which is available to parishioners, can be a good start to our reflections. Watch for details concerning several opportunities to share ideas in small groups throughout Advent. The first reflection, for the First Sunday of Advent, encourages us to think of Joseph in terms of his life situation. Joseph, a poor carpenter in Nazareth, is not wealthy nor powerful, but is content to live his simple life in Nazareth. As the author of Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Joseph reminds us: “He was content with where he was, because he was content with who he was.” He knew that God wanted him in Nazareth and that God would always be with him, in Nazareth or wherever he went.

This Advent would be a good time to discuss “expectations” with your chil-dren. For many, the Christmas season only reinforces unrealistic expecta-tions. “What will I get?” “This will be the best Christmas ever if only. . .” How can we help our children to understand that unreasonable expectations are sometimes a source of disappointment. How many, like Calvin, feel entitled to a life that “showers them with meaning and happiness?” This Advent, let’s focus on understanding that sitting and waiting for happiness is a counterproductive strategy. Take some Advent Family Time to talk about how we can all search productively for our own happiness and help to bring happiness to others. The Advent calendar we sent out last week might have some suggestions for a good start.

Fifth Grade Family Mass December 8th

The fifth grade families from our school and RE programs will cele-brate together as a class on Sunday, December 8th at the 11:30 Mass. Please plan to join us.

Video Testimonials for St. Germaine School:

We’re ready for our close up, Mr.

DeMille! We would like to invite school fami-lies to help us in a project to market our school to new families. The program will involve a number of families who would be willing to rec-ord a brief testimonial statement about why they have enrolled their children at St. Germaine or what part of the school experience they are most pleased with. We will record the testimonials on December 8th (before and after the Fifth Grade Family Mass; 11:00 to 12:45). Another opportunity will be on Sunday, December 15th (10:30 to 12:30) No preparation or scripting is neces-sary. Julie Clarke, our director of marketing, will prep/rehearse with you before taking the video. If you can help out, please call the office to let us know.

Advent Video Series The “Rejoicing with Joseph” program has a series of videos to help guide your Advent meditations. To sign up for the weekly programs visit Rejoiceprogram.com

Looking Ahead. . . 12/3 Out-of-Uniform Day for donations for Bourbon Street Baskets 12/4 School Board Meeting; 7:00 p.m. in the Faculty Room 12/8 Fifth Grade Family Mass; 11:30 a.m. 12/9 Parent Reconciliation/Communion Meeting in the Church, 6:30 p.m. 12/11-12 Santa’s Secret Shop (during school hours) Details will follow 12/11 Christmas Concert; Grades K-4 and the St. Germaine Bands; 7:00 p.m. in the Chruch 12/16 Confirmation Formation Session; Year II stduents; 4:45-6:45 p.m. in the Church 12/20 Christmas Break begins at 2:30 p.m. —Full attendance day for students.

Please remember that December 20th is a full school day. Dismissal is at 2:30 p.m.

Students will attend Mass at 1:30 followed by Christmas Carols No EXTENDED DAY on December 20th!

On-Line Christmas shopping is just around the corner! You can continue to support our school with your Amazon purchases. You can quickly set up an account on the Amazon site. Select St. Germaine as your preferred charity. Amazon rebates 0.5% of your qualified purchase automatically.

Smile.amazon.com

Plans are moving along quite rapidly for our third “Night on the Town” at Bourbon Street on Saturday, January 18th. The event is a great kick off to Catholic Schools Week. Over the past three years, the event has become one of our most important fund-raisers. We’re count-ing on your help and generosity to make this year spectacular! Here are some ways to show your support:

We are looking for business/family spon-sors for the event. A copy of the sponsor-ship letter is attached.

We’re looking for raffle basket items. (Thanks to all the families who made a donation to the baskets so their students could have an out-of-uniform day! Re-member, the donation entitles you to $5 in raffle basket tickets at the event on Janu-ary 18th)

We will be offering pre-sale raffle tickets for the major raffle prizes. (Rumor has it there will be an IPAD, Yeti cooler, and a Nintendo “Switch.”)

Make plans with other parents from your grade level to attend together. No one likes walking into an event without knowing someone! We’re hoping that the Room Moms will be able to coordinate a way for parents from each grade to meet! An or-der form for tickets is also attached to this newsletter.

Germaniacs of the Month Congratulations to our latest Germaniacs! We honored them at our last Liturgy Update on Friday, November 22nd. The Germainiac of the Month Award recognizes two students from each class who have shown an exemplary positive ef-fect on their classroom and peers. Germaniacs are marked by their kindness to and respect for others. They are sup-

portive of their friends and teachers. We hope that all of our students will strive to be named as a Germaniac this year. Kindergarten: Riley Rogers, Ben Thiele; Grade 1: Mikayla Medina, Damian Hernandez; Grade 2: Mia Chimino, Carolina Thiele; Grade 3:Maddy Daley, Sophia Guzman; Grade 4: Ernie Pedroza, Natalie Bridgeman; Grade 5: Avery Shipman, Ryan Mayo; Grade 6: Allison Lai, Hannah Missey; Grade 7 Emily Griggs, Ruben Vital; Grade 8: Simon Xu, Mindy Favela