At Mass this Weekend:
* Gaudete Sunday! Joy!
* Christmas Cookie Sharing
* Get your Blood Pressure taken
* Knights Holiday Nut sales and POINSETTIAS
* Social SUNDAY! 
Sign-up to contribute to Social SUNDAY, following 5:00 PM Youth Mass:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0D4BAFAC2BA02-social2Clothing Request from Prison Ministry
As you may know, the Lake Travis Thrift Shop contributes used clothing (trousers and non-white collared shirts) to the Travis State Jail for use by male inmates upon their release from the unit. The unit's warden has asked if Emmaus could increase the donation of clothing to the unit this month to enable the release of inmates before Christmas. If you can, please drop off clothing at the parish office for delivery to the unit. Donation box is located on the porch of the parish office, so drop-off can happen at any time. Again, shirts must be collared; so please no t-shirts. Thank you in advance!
Emmaus SEED gift cards: Thank you for purchasing our gift cards, we have had huge sales so far this Advent season! Gift cards will be on sale again this weekend at every Mass, thanks to our volunteers that help sell them. Bring your check or cash. We got the perfect gift for teachers, neighbors, stocking stuffers, etc!
PS: we will have Advent Giving Tree results soon, and the indication is *fabulous* !!
Your help is needed for our Christmas Season
To make Christmas happen at Emmaus, we need your help! We have so, so many visitors and "ChristEaster" Catholics at these Masses and we want them to know that they are welcome and have a church home here at Emmaus.
Below is a sign-up link that includes two kinds of help needed:
- We need greeters before and after each Christmas Mass and at every door. This is great for ANYONE, even families with small children. The greeting is simple, Merry Christmas! Only a smile is needed. Greeters will be handing out our Christmas "bulletin" so no shaking hands. This "bulletin" is an invitation to have our guests come back.
- We need help with decorating the Church!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409094FA4AB2EA6FF2-help1
Dedication & Blessing of Rosary Garden
We have a Rosary Garden now at Emmaus! This is the result of parishioner Michael Cotton's Eagle scout project - it is beautiful! This garden is located at the top of the stairs that begin at the St. Michael the Archangel statue, outside the main entrance of the church. All are invited on this Sunday, December 16, to the dedication and blessing of this garden with Michael and his family and Fr. Samuel.
All are welcome, at any time, to enjoy the garden, sit and contemplate or walk on the rosary path. Thank you and God Bless you always, Michael!
And the funnies...
Last Christmas, grandpa was feeling his age and found that shopping for Christmas gifts had become too difficult. So he decided to send checks to everyone instead. In each card he wrote, "Buy your own present!" and mailed them early. He enjoyed the usual flurry of family festivities, and it was only after the holiday that he noticed that he had received very few cards in return. Puzzled over this, he went into his study, intending to write a couple of his relatives and ask what had happened. It was then, as he cleared off his cluttered desk that he got his answer. Under a stack of papers, he was horrified to find the gift checks which he had forgotten to enclose with the cards.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.
Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.
We should have known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.
