Celebrating Easter 2016

We celebrated Easter on Sunday with our families and will continue the celebration for many more weeks!!  What a time for JOY in celebrating Our Risen Lord!  He has given Himself so fully for us and the JOY we feel is just so natural! How can we be anything but full of JOY?!!

We prepared for and celebrated in many ways.  Many of these are traditions that we have been doing for many years and they make this season so special!

**Holy Thursday liturgical tea and getting to attend my niece's First Holy Communion that evening!!

**Good Friday liturgical tea and Good Friday service at our church.  We also made Hot Cross Buns.

**On Holy Saturday, we went to an Easter egg hunt in the town where I grew up.  Yes, I know it wasn't quite Easter, but it's one of those traditions that even *I* did as a kid and we really wanted to pass this on to our own crew.  And, I'm fine with our kids getting this little bit of JOY before Easter. We also made our very first Paschal Candle!!  And we colored Easter eggs that night.  And (yeah, it was a busy day!), I also made our Lamb cake!

**Easter morning Mass!!!  Our oldest boys served and our oldest girls sang in the choir.  It's so strange to sit in a pew with only four of our kids!  We only take up half a pew!!  Then we were able to celebrate with both of our families! All my siblings and their husbands, my husbands brother and his wife, both sets of our parents, and all the cousins. Blessed beyond belief to be with our loved ones and to see the JOY of Jesus living in each one of us!!

And a blurry selfie picture of Neil and I, after we took off our "Easter Egg" church clothes.  And after having Skirted It Up for Lent, you can bet that I happily changed into jeans for our two Easter parties that day!

**SING!!!  Sing your little hearts out!!  Make a joyful noise!  We learned a new song on Easter and we have all been singing it.  I had to record sweet Rose singing it....

And a great song that has many "Alleluia's" in it!  Great since we have been fasting from singing Alleluia for 40 days!!

I hope and pray you have a beautiful and blessed Easter season!!!  

Holy Thursday - 2014

Today begins the Holy Triduum in our Church!  It is one of my favorite Masses of the whole year. Fone and Mario served Mass and our family was asked to take up the gifts following the dressing of the altar and the presentation of the holy oils.  Super special night!!!

Before Mass, we fed our hungry crew a Holy Thursday themed meal, almost identical to the meal we have done for the last two years.  It's so sweet how the kids look forward to and remember and talk about these special traditions throughout the year.

Here was our menu...

**Hearts of Palm**

(we had salad - one plain and one Caesar, since palms are green plants too and we need a veggie)

**Costly Oil**

(plain ole olive oil - we sprinkled on some parmesan and crushed pepper for a yummy dip for the bread)

**Thirty Pieces of Silver**

(30 Ritz crackers)

**Unleavened Bread**

(skinny bread - went great with the olive oil dip)

**Mount of Olives**

(black olives)

**Cock Crows Twice**

(chicken pot pies)

**Gethsemane Figs**

(Fig Newtons)

**Judas' Kisses**

(Hershey's kisses with green wrappers)

**Clouds of Heaven**

(Cool Whip to go with the fig newtons)

**Peter's Tears**

(Altoid mints - they are so strong, they can bring tears to your eyes)

Here is our celebration for 2012.  And as always, a HUGE thanks to Jessica for sharing the idea of this tea to begin with - what a wonderful inspiration she is to me!!!

++Thank you, God, for ideas like this themed tea to help remember and understand all about the sacrifice of Your Son and His great love for us.++  

A "not so perfect" end of Lent and Holy Week

Phew!  It truly is Holy Week and the end of Lent, huh?  We started this week (or rather ended last week) with me fighting severe hives and an allergic reaction and I ended up being hospitalized Saturday and Sunday evening.  I came home Monday, but am fighting symptoms still, not to mention the nasty side-effects of being on steroids.  I had a kidney stone (blasting) surgery two-and-a-half weeks ago, and it's still unsure if medication given to me from that is what triggered my body to explode like this.  I am a mystery to the doctors right now and have many follow-up appointments in the next couple weeks to try to figure things out.  I was covered from head to foot in hives (literally!) and here a two pictures of my legs to show you how beautiful they were and a picture of my sweet little visitor who came in to say "hi" and bring me good cheer.... 

sweet smiley Rose....   it was SO hard being away from her those 2 nights while I was in the hospital! 

God is so amazing and wonderful, and comes to us "in flesh" when hard times and CrAzInEsS like this hits.  My family was amazing -- helped with kids throughout the day and overnight.  My mother and sister took me to the ER after my family medical doctor shooed me out of her office and sent me there right away.  My mom even stayed the night with me the first night (like she says - "once a mother, always a mother" - thanks, Mom!  I love you!!!!).  My older sisters ran Ariel's birthday party, which had to change last minute and only include cousins.  My sister-in-law brought a meal to feed our crew, a sweet friend stopped by to visit while I was in the hospital and left food/goodies at our house, another friend made a yummy meal, and not to mention, the countless emails, phone calls, messages from all our other family and friends.  God truly made His love and presence known and made bearing this cross much lighter and easier.  Thank you, God!!!

Now, like I said, all that happened at the start of the week....  Then we were hit with many deaths as the week went on.  Two of them were sisters that our children train with and are part of our TKD family - truly heartbreaking!!  Please pray for their family - their mother just gives and gives of herself for our TKD family and is almost always present when we are there for classes.  Her girls were always bouncing around and bubbly as ever, and will truly be missed.  The other death was the husband of our local Pro-life NFP doctor, and had a tragic death as well.  And, then we also found out that a sweet friend of mine lost her brother-in-law and we lost a wonderful lady from our parish.  May God send His love and presence to all the families involved in these deaths and may the faithful departed rest in peace....

We really went "all out" last year for both Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and enjoyed our Liturgical Teas to bring such beauty and meaning to these Holy Days.  But, being on survival mode all week and still today, we had to simplify our plans quite a bit.  For Holy Thursday, we thankfully made it to Mass and our sweet baby Olivia was one of the twelve to have had her feet washed.  It was absolutely *precious*!  She totally lit up when Msgr went to wash her piggies and of course, Msgr and the two deacons were all smiles as well.  What a beautiful bonding and gracefilled moment this was.  Probably similar to the gesture of love that our new Pope Francis made when he washed the feet of two women and shocked the world on the same day.  For today (Good Friday), I made a breakfast egg "crown" (made from crescent rolls and scrambled eggs), the kids colored some pictures and we were able to pull off a very simplified version of a Good Friday Liturgical Tea for dinner.  This added some comfort and tradition to our celebrations and although was served on paper plates (again -- we are still on "survival mode"), it was still very nice. 

a breakfast egg "crown" bake

crucifixion coloring pages

crucifixion coloring pages

crown of thorns (see this link from our 2012 post for more details)

crown of thorns refried bean dip (see this link from 2012 post for more details)

Here are some more pictures that show our "not so perfect" end of Lent and Holy Week.... as you can see, we became WAY behind on our Jesus tree with the CrAzY last couple weeks.  And, not all the kids got their coloring done on our REPENT cross....

2013 Jesus tree (looks like we'll still be adding a few pieces throughout the Easter season)

our 2013 REPENT cross and calendar

Although the last couple weeks haven't gone according to *our* plans, we still give our thanks and trust to our wonderful God, because all is perfect in His eyes and He always works everything out according to His plan. 

Holy Thursday - 2012

 Taste and see how good the Lord is

come, let us adore!

(Psalm 34:9)

Holy Thursday Mass is one of my favorite Masses of the whole year, even though I was out in the gathering area by the front doors with two goofey little boys most of the time tonight.  I love it all...  the incense, the washing of the feet, the presentation of the chrism, decorating the altar, best of all - the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Christ, stripping the altar, and the transfer of the Blessed Sacrament to prepare for the Good Friday.  Fone and Mario served and did a fantastic job.  I think that is one reason I'm at peace with my cRaZy goofey boys in the back, because I now know there are phases and someday they will be up on the altar serving our Lord.

After Mass, we came home to celebrate a special family meal, where all of the food that we ate symbolized some part of tonight's celebrations at Mass. Thanks to Alice and Jessica who are wonderful inspirations and share their ideas for bringing home what we celebrate in the Church.  This was our first year doing the Holy Thursday meal, and it was definitely a hit.  We our looking forward to our 2nd Good Friday dinner tomorrow!  Here are some pictures of our food items and what they symbolized....

**Costly Oil** 

(extra virgin olive oil -  we sprinkled Parmesan on the oil and dipped our "unleavened bread" in it)

 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

(Mk. 14: 9)

 **Thirty Pieces of Silver**

(we used cheese flavored rice crackers)

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What will you give me if I deliver him to you?' And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.

(Matthew  25: 14-15)

**Unleavened Bread**

(we used skinny bread that we split apart)

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the passover lamb, his disciples said to Him, 'Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the passover?'

(Mark 14: 12)

**Mount of Olives**

(black and green olives)

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

(Mark  14: 26)

**Cock Crows Twice**

(we used Chicken wraps with cream cheese, salsa and chopped chicken and our favorite Chicken Wild Rice Soup)

 And Jesus said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.'

(Mark  14: 30)

**Gethsemane Figs**

(Fig Newtons)

 And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here, while I pray.' 

(Mark  14: 32)


**Judas' Kiss**

(green Hershey's kisses - Holy Thursday is also known as Green Thursday, so we had to work the green in!)

And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, 'Master!' And he kissed him.
(Mark  14: 45)


**Clouds of Heaven**

(Redi-Whip to top off the Fig Newtons)

 And Jesus said, 'I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.'
(Mark  14: 62)

 
**Peter's Tears**

(Altoids mints - poor Pookey was seriously almost in tears after eating it!)

And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, 'Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.' And he broke down and wept.
(Mark  14: 72)

What a fun, meaningful meal it was.  It was extra special since we were able to celebrate with one of our favorite priests on his feast day, the Institution of the Priesthood.  We are certainly looking forward to tomorrow night's Good Friday dinner.  Here are a couple other pictures from the night....