Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Tonight I made beef picadillo empanadas, roasted chicken in a mole sauce, and Mexican rice for our dinner. I think this is the same empanada recipe I used for Dia de los Muertos two years ago. I've never had mole sauce before, every time I think about ordering it in a restaurant I see something else that I know will be good and order that instead. I know mole is pretty labor intensive, so I wanted to try it before I undertake preparing it myself. I used a store bought Dona Maria brand mole which I found at Freddy's.
Mr. W ended up having to stay late to make a conference call with Japan, so I had to prepare the whole meal, basically making 3 new recipes, trying to coordinate the timing so everything would be ready at the same time, with two little boys underfoot. A recipe for disaster one might say, so unfortunately I ended up in a bad, less than festive mood by the time dinner was on the table. (Sometimes I don't know why I do this to myself!)
The mole was a bit of a problem, I couldn't find instructions on the label (until it was too late) so I kind of burned it because I didn't know I was supposed to add 1 cup water to 1 part paste. Yikes, what a mess! But Mr. W arrived home just in time and we were able to resurrect the sauce and in the end it was quite tasty.I set the table with a vintage poinsettia tablecloth, a OLQoG candle, and an arrangement of crepe paper flowers I bought on our vacation to Arizona earlier this year. I thought the'd look nice since St. Juan Diego collected flowers that Our Lady made appear in winter to take to the bishop to persuade him to build a church.During dinner I told Our Little Helper the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He asks lots of good questions and I try to keep my explanations as simple as possible. Like most 4 year olds he has a short attention span. But he did love those empanadas!
This is also the point of the Advent season when I decorate the mantle with poinsettias and read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. He is one of my favorite illustrators. I love his interpretations of stories and legends and this book always makes me cry as I am reading aloud.