So, with the down market comes lots of tips for selling your home quickly, including the stalwart suggestion of inviting the assistance of the Patron Saint of Real Estate, St. Joseph.

In my children’s school, Halloween is a quasi-holiday on October 31st, but so is the next day, November 1st, All Saints Day (and the next day, which is All Souls Day, a Holy Day of Obligation.) The children in my youngest son Sam’s class were asked to all dress up as their favorite saints and prepare a short speech on each one. There were fans of Saint Louis (Patron Saint of Buttons), St. Apollonia (dentists), Antony the Abbot (eczema), Nicholas of Myra (pawnbrokers) and several lovers of St. Claire, Patron Saint of Television. But my son chose to be St. Joseph, because “my Mommy is a real estate agent and he watches over us”. His teachers noticed some kind acts and last year he was chosen for as one of the children who was most “Christ-like” in his 2nd grade class. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess (Though one of my friends mumbled something about there being a mix-up in the hospital…..)

Buy your very own St. Joseph statue at Archie McPhee