15/52: Holy Week and Easter Week

Happy Easter! Alleluia!

The self-timer was our friend this year and I made sure to space us a little more evenly than last year's failed Easter picture, but I think we're outgrowing the "everybody line up on the step" pose! What will we do NEXT year?? We got everybody dressed in Easter clothes (can we appreciate the blue-pink-blue-pink theme I managed even though I only pulled out the clothes the day before and only ONE article of clothing was actually new? Everything else we already owned!) and set up the tripod to take a picture, and a man in a pickup truck pulled into the driveway to tell us how great everybody looked, so the first set of pictures was ruined by Peter and Edith looking at him, but let's all appreciate Lucy's face as everybody hollered, "ALLELUIA!" and she hollered, "CECIYIA!!!!!!"

The next set of pictures wasn't bad though, even though Edith apparently forgot how to smile (she LOVED her dress and was so happy to be wearing an old hat that we dug out from under a pile of stuff in the mud room)... Definitely better than last year! (GOODNESS that series of pictures is hilarious.)

We did our usual Holy Week activities, like soft pretzels on Good Friday and Stations of the Cross. This year was obviously different because there were no Holy Week liturgies we could go to, although it's not like I can ever go anyway since there's always a baby or little kids at home who need to go to bed! So we streamed them on TV and let the kids stay up and either watch & pray with us or just sit quietly and read religious books. It worked a lot better than trying to force them all to pay attention! Then Andrew found an Extraordinary Form vigil Mass for us to watch on Saturday night, but we didn't realize it was a pre-1955 service which meant TWELVE readings (in addition to the Gospel) so... It was long. Even with no Communion, no baptisms, and a very short homily, it was over 3 hours. The kids did not make it that long!

With all the "extra" time on our hands (from activities being cancelled and no long drives to Holy Week liturgies), we tried candying violets from the yard. First we did sugar syrup and they all just stuck together like purple lumps. So I did the much fussier version involving painting them with egg white and sprinkling with caster sugar... They turned out pretty but it took QUITE a long time! And tasted like sugar and that's about it. But it was a fun diversion for the week.

How has your Easter been so far? Hopefully you're finding ways to celebrate even when you have to stay home!