Christmas

It features at most length in 'French Secrets' and 'Finding Home'. Here's an extract from the latter: 

I remembered one Christmas Eve, running all around the house, hunting for Henry. I must have been 13 or 14. Henry would have been five. I found him in the oratory on his knees, eyes shut, rosebud mouth working rapidly in silent prayer.
​‘Tea time, Henry. Before we dress the tree.’
‘I’ve nearly finished a pair of bootees.’
His mouth worked faster for another minute. I was mystified. Then he heaved a sigh, opened his eyes and stood up. ‘I was knitting clothes for baby Jesus. To keep him warm’. 
Mummy’s aunt, who was a nun, had told him prayers kept baby Jesus warm in his crib. Praying was like knitting. Even at that age, Henry was keen on detail. He had demanded to know how many prayers, and of what kind, made up a lline of knitting. She had invented for him a pattern of Hail Marys and Our Fathers. Henry had knitted an entire layette. 

(I based this on my own experience. The nuns at my primary school had indeed told us prayers made clothes for baby Jesus. I can remember standing outside our house, praying furiously to finish a jacket for baby Jesus before someone came to look for me.)