I hope you are having a wonderful, beautiful, and very blessed Easter! Our day has been just about perfect so far, and after Little Bear's nap we are looking forward to dinner and the kids' egg hunt at my family's house.
We sat in the third pew from the front this morning, close enough that Little Bear was quiet and still, staring at everything, for most of Mass. The church was packed, standing room only, so I'm glad we got there a half hour early! With all of those people and no air conditioning, it got hot; I had to run outside and sit on the front steps for ten minutes by the beginning of the Our Father because I was feeling faint. Squirrel and I had a discussion about not making Mama faint during Mass, and we made it through the rest okay.
How about an Easter (and Easter-prep) photo dump?
Decorating Easter egg cookies with Grandma
Dyeing eggs
Dyeing eggs with onion skins
Baking the Easter bread Holy Saturday evening. Those are raw eggs, dyed in red cabbage (blue), radish (purple), and annatto (orange)
Hands down, his favorite thing in the basket was Go Dog Go. "Beans!" were popular as well
Egg! Egg, Mama! He was so excited to see them poking out of the bread
My first attempt at my mom's Italian Easter bread was a success!
What I Wore Easter Sunday with Fine Linen and Purple:
Cardigan borrowed from my sister
Dress from Motherhood Maternity
Pumps from Payless
Definitely starting to show at 9 weeks pregnant with Squirrel!
1. What did you and your family wear to Mass on Easter Sunday?
Well, mine is right up there because I was silly and didn't look at these questions before I started, and Little Bear is napping and Matt already took his tie off, so it's kind of too late to get a family Easter photo. They both wore khakis and dress shirts, though--Little Bear a blue, pink, white and mint check, Matt a pale blue--and Matt wore a fun yellow and blue artsy tie.
2. Easter Bunny: thumbs up or thumbs down?
I don't have anything in particular against the Easter bunny, and we are definitely planning for years of egg hunts and basket-hiding, but we don't plan on saying the Easter Bunny is real... I guess we don't really plan on saying anything about the Easter Bunny at all. Maybe it's a bigger deal other places? People don't really talk about the Easter Bunny much here.
3. Do you prefer to celebrate holidays at your own house or at someone else's house?
Growing up, we always celebrated holidays at our house; we had people over on most holidays, sometimes as many as 40 or 50 people, but we were always the hosts. It made sense, because we don't have any relatives within thousands of miles, and we were a big enough family that inviting us over probably intimidated most people, and we had a big yard for all of the kids to run around.
So being married, having our own home and growing our own family, and going over to my family's house for holidays now, it feels weird. There's a voice in the back of my mind telling me that we aren't really being adults because we aren't "doing holidays" at our own house. Which is absurd, because I certainly don't think that everyone who came to my family's holiday parties all those years weren't being adults! But I do look forward to some day having a home conducive to entertaining, and not being in the first trimester, and hosting a holiday on our own.
4. What is your favorite kind of candy?
Chocolate. Smooth dark chocolate from Dove. But dark chocolate can have a lot of caffeine in it, and I'm allergic to caffeine, which is very sad. I eat it anyway, of course! But only a very little bit at a time. Peanut butter-filled chocolate, like the Reese's Pieces eggs I discovered this year, are also very good.
5. Do you like video games?
I have a funny vision problem called binocular instability, meaning that my eyes are constantly trying to focus individually rather than cooperatively, and it causes headaches particularly when I look at moving objects on screens. So video games are pretty much out.
With any media, there's plenty of trashy options to weed out, especially when it comes to deciding what kids should be allowed to play. Little Bear won't be old enough for that to even come into discussion here for years and years. I think video games can be a great tool for education and mentally-engaging entertainment, though; certainly they require more thought than staring passively at a television program! The opportunities for cooperative, interactive gameplay, too, are a definite bonus that other types of media do not offer.
6. Can you speak another language?
I can read Latin passably, although after not really using it for so long it's slipping. That knowledge lets me puzzle out the occasional Spanish, French or Italian phrase in older books where the authors simply assume that readers are literate in several languages. I can't really speak any other language, though. Although since today is Easter, I actually know a fair bit of pertinent Church Slavonic and have been singing it off and on all day!
Enjoy your Easter Sunday, and the coming octave week of celebration!
Christ is risen from the dead
By death He trampled death
And to those in the tombs
He granted life!
Beautiful bread!! Happy Easter!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThat bread is lovely. It seems like everyone is doing the natural dyes. I may have to try it!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how simple the natural dyes were, and how brightly they colored the eggs! It's definitely worth trying!
DeleteHa! Once again, I say that Peter has that same outfit as Little Bear wore on Easter (assuming you're describing the one picturing him with with the bread). AND he wore it yesterday. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, you'll probably find as you add kids and they grow, it's easier to do holidays on your own at home. I remember our first year or two with Andrew I felt like the work wasn't really worth it. But now it's worth it to be able to be at home with the kids (and not have to travel!).
It certainly is more work to make the meal than to be a guest! I think the biggest thing keeping me from having Easter on our own this year, though, was knowing that it would disappoint my family if we chose not to go. My parents grew up visiting relatives on holidays, and saw the lack of that in our childhoods as an unfortunate thing; I grew up not visiting relatives on holidays, and see doing so as an unusual and less-comfortable thing. But I can't really say "no, your grandson who lives 20 minutes away is not coming over for holidays because I didn't grow up seeing my grandparents on holidays"! I guess it's something we will work out as the family grows.
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