He is Risen!

Happy Easter Monday! we are officially into the Easter Octave, the eight days of feasting to celebrate the most important day on the church calendar. after the penitential season of Lent and the profound solemnity of the Triduum, we celebrate each day of this upcoming week with just as much joy as Easter Sunday itself (if not with quite so much sugar). 

Sabrina took the girls to see the Easter bunny and Elizabeth was obsessed (although she didn't want to sit on his lap). she still talks about the Easter bunny and how he was "so cute!"

fun at daycare

during Lent this year, our whole family gave up sweets and we did pretty well with it overall. it's such a simple act that sometimes feels too trite, as if we should be striving for more and more complicated spiritual practices over the years. and in some ways that may be true, but especially with young kids involved, I think there is still so much to be gained from it. I also gave up Facebook; with so many ads and suggested posts clogging the newsfeed, I was spending more and more time scrolling to get to the content I actually wanted to see, and getting distracted by posts from strangers in various groups rather than engaging with actual friends. I committed to following along with the Pray40 challenge in the Hallow app and really enjoyed learning more about Father Walter Ciszek's story of surrender. we continued to abstain from meat on Fridays, as Catholics are still advised to do year-round, but particularly during the Lenten season. out of the three pillars of Lenten practices (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving), we failed to do anything out of the ordinary for almsgiving... something to work on next year! and this is the beauty of the rhythm of the liturgical seasons, that we always have another chance. 

just like last year, I took off Holy Thursday and Good Friday from work to more fully enter into our spiritual preparation for Easter. on Holy Thursday morning, we had a doctor's appointment to recheck Victoria's ear (she had just completed ten days of antibiotics for an ear infection with a perforated ear drum, poor baby!) and got the great news that all had healed up completely. then I took Cece, Elizabeth and Victoria to the science center so we could visit the Titanic exhibit in its final weeks on display. Nick had already taken Greta and Cecilia to see it over a previous school break and Greta wasn't interested in seeing it again, while Cece immediately jumped at the chance to be my tour guide. 

all of the science center parking lots were full, so we had to find street parking a quarter mile away. the upshot: this fantastic photo op! how I love this city!

Victoria was finally old enough to play in the infant area!

she kept saying, "yay! I go science! I go science!"

future radiologist?

each admission ticket came with an actual boarding pass printed on the reverse side with the name, reservation details, and brief biography of an actual passenger on the Titanic. spoiler alert: the lady named on Cece's ticket, Helen Churchill Candee, survived!

a recreation of a first class cabin

...and the third class accommodations

Cece was most excited about this part of the exhibit, "an actually real iceberg"

her entry in the guestbook on our way out

there were cases upon cases of well-preserved artifacts from the Titanic itself, but between the crowds, the double stroller, and Elizabeth's past-naptime hijinks, I didn't get to peruse as much as I would have liked. the exhibit itself is well done and I'd recommend it if it comes to your town!

we drove home to pick up Greta and turned right back around to attend the first church service of the Triduum, the Mass of the Lord's Supper. at this mass, the organ is silent after the Gloria and instruments will not be heard again until the Gloria of the Easter vigil on Saturday night. at the consecration, not even bells are permitted to be rung; instead, a wooden clapper beats out a percussive triplet to call our attention to the altar. at the conclusion of the mass, the Blessed Sacrament is taken out of the church while we sing the ancient hymn Pange lingua (Pange, lingua, gloriósi córporis mystérium, sanguinísque pretiósi, quem in mundi prétium fructus ventris generósi Rex effúdit géntium.// Of the glorious Body telling, O my tongue, its mysteries sing, And the Blood, all price excelling, Which the world’s eternal King, in a noble womb once dwelling, shed for the world’s ransoming." the Sacrament is then brought to a side altar, known as an altar of repose, where we can pray and watch with Jesus just as He asked his disciples to do in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

that evening I made a new recipe for chicken shawarma, served with pita bread and tzatziki dip. this may be a new tradition for Holy Thursday! 

on Good Friday, we avoided screens all day, and prayed the Stations of the Cross as a family at noon. I also kept the lights turned off from noon til 3 PM, although the girls were still allowed to play outside and read. that afternoon, we attended the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion. this is the one day of the year on which a full mass is not celebrated; as St. Thomas Aquinas explained, "[The Mass] is a figure and representation of our Lord's Passion. And therefore on the day on which our Lord’s Passion is recalled as it was really accomplished, this sacrament is not consecrated." Communion is still distributed using the Host that was consecrated on Holy Thursday, and we go up individually to venerate the cross. 

just like Ash Wednesday, Good Friday is a day of fasting for adults (health permitting). while the kids of course ate their normal meatless meals throughout the day, Nick and I waited until dinner for our full meal of the day: fish fillets and homemade macaroni and cheese. the last time I made macaroni and cheese from scratch, my kids refused to eat it, but the week prior my friend Colleen made an absolutely delicious version for us that the kids devoured: Pioneer Woman's recipe, omitting the egg and cooked on the stovetop. I had no dry mustard, so substituted Dijon mustard according to the ratio touted online (1 tablespoon prepared mustard = 1 teaspoon dry mustard). and while Nick and I loved the tangy result and Elizabeth and Victoria both gobbled it up, the older girls are still moaning about the "mustard mac and cheese". oh well!

on Holy Saturday, we dyed Easter eggs and made Resurrection cookies. I let Elizabeth take a long nap in preparation for our late night: for the first time in years, I planned to bring the kids to the Easter vigil service. at our church, the vigil starts at 9:30 PM and lasts about two hours. at some churches, the vigil can last three hours or longer, depending on how many baptisms or confirmations they have. I figured Elizabeth and Victoria would fall asleep, and that the older girls were certainly capable of staying up until 11:30 on this occasion since they have stayed up until midnight for New Year's before. plus, we could sleep in on Easter Sunday and then make the final preparations for hosting Easter dinner. 

the height of class: we somehow acquired a sleeve of Miller Lite cups that has been stashed in our sideboard for at least ten years and this seemed an appropriate use for them

fresh from a bath, taste-testing the meringue

Elizabeth helped to "seal the tomb" with tape

on the way out the door; she was trying to carry two stuffed animals, a book, and her backpack

the vigil service starts with a huge bonfire outside the church. the girls immediately found Nick standing with the choir next to the priests and scored a great vantage point to watch the dancing flames. we then processed into the church and lit candles as the service progressed with readings from the Old Testament alternating with beautiful polyphony from the choir singing a capella psalms. then, the Gloria erupted with a cascade of arpeggios from the organ and triumphant bell-ringing! 

half an hour into the service, Greta was wilting since she had woken up at five o'clock that morning for no reason other than the irony of being on school break and not needing to be anywhere in the morning. however, Elizabeth and Victoria were wide-eyed and paying attention to everything. and while I told Greta she could go rest on the couch in the narthex, Cece and the babies stayed. awake. for. the. entire. mass. they were the only kids there and towards the end, Elizabeth fussed a little bit, but all things considered, she did better than I had any right to expect of her! 

the music was absolutely gorgeous and as we sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", I had to choke back the tears. it's always been one of my favourite hymns, even as a child, and every Easter it reminds me of my conversion journey and the faith journeys of so many people around me. at the conclusion of mass, we all gathered in the narthex with greetings of "Happy Easter!!" and found Greta, sound asleep on the couch. 

a somewhat grumpy Easter morning was the tradeoff for my late-night liturgical joy; the girls did not in fact sleep in, and they were mad about needing to wait for Nick to come back from playing for Sunday services to find their Easter baskets. then they confessed that they actually had found them and looked through them while I was still asleep, and could I hide them again somewhere? there were some redeeming moments, such as opening the sealed tomb of the oven to taste the resurrection cookies (not quite as hollow as one might have hoped, but still delicious), eating cinnamon rolls made directly from the Pillsbury can, thank you very much, and opening the Easter treats my mom sent.

(the glasses are non-prescription, borrowed from a friend!)

then Elizabeth took a bona fide nap and the older girls had some quiet time in their room before Nick's parents arrived, Nick returned from church, and we could sit down to our Easter dinner. the menu was simple: Easter ham, deviled eggs, BLT dip, crescent rolls, green salad, crockpot meatballs, baked corn casserole, and fruit salad. Sabrina brought her traditional bunny cake and lemon dessert. 

not a very photogenic plate but it was delicious!

Victoria gobbled up ham, corn, and strawberries

then Sabrina, Joe and Nick hid the Easter eggs while the girls helped me clean up and an epic Easter egg hunt commenced. I stuffed 91 eggs which sounds utterly ridiculous, but I wasn't sure how many neighbor kids might be around so wanted to have plenty. as it turned out, it was just us! they found 87 eggs which is pretty good, considering. the egg hunt was punctuated by an unexpected sighting of the Dick's Sporting Goods blimp which we had seen flying over downtown this past week, but have never seen directly over our house! and Victoria went on the swings for the very first time. she's a big fan!

Elizabeth caught on to the concept very quickly

this face!!! 

our Easter celebrations concluded with a lamb roast at our Orthodox friends' house. we arrived just as the lamb was finished cooking and the delicious seasonings were a perfect complement to our lunch of ham. wishing you all a very joyous Easter!

Cece is rightfully proud of her robin's egg in the center of the dish