Jesus Christ is Risen! Alleluia!!!
As expected, we missed all the Triduum services. No Easter vigil for me, even though it’s my absolute favorite event of the entire year. Instead last night I watched the Passion after the girls were in bed and then went to sleep myself.
We got Bella up early to take a bath before Mass and then watched her explore her Easter basket while Sophie learned about chocolate. I had a very nice breakfast of homemade challah—that Dom baked yesterday—and hard boiled eggs. (Bella decided she does not like boiled eggs so settled for challah and yogurt.) I also had some strawberries with part of a dark chocolate bunny. Decadent. Tasted just like chocolate covered strawberries.
We went to our usual Mass where the church was packed and filled with flowers and Father M preached a dynamic homily. Then home and Dom hid eggs while I put Sophie down for a nap and Bella used the bathroom. Then we watched Bella dash about in the muddy backyard wearing her new Easter dress and her bright green rainboots finding all the plastic eggs that we pointed out for her and collecting them in her basket. Then she sat at the table and opened every one to discover the jellybeans hidden inside. Dom made some excellent deviled eggs using Tabasco mustard while I chatted with my Dad and tried to upload photos to the blog.
I had to abandon my blog post and we had to wake Sophie up halfway through her nap to go to lunch at Dom’s brother Bernie’s. There was a delicious spread of food cooked by my sisters-in-law: devilled eggs, spinach pie, stuffed manicotti, shepherds pie, stuffed artichokes, asparagus, and all sorts of other goodies (and Dom brought a big pot of meatballs in sauce).
Then after a long afternoon of chatting with family in the dining room while others were watching the Ten Commandments and the kids played, we progressed over to Dom’s other brother, John’s for dessert (Oh so many desserts!) That way we got to see everyone. It was a nice day with the two things that are best about family: lots of good food and much time for sitting and chatting with everyone. My nieces performed the Cotton Eye Joe for everyone. Delightful! And all the kids ate way too many sweets.
I love visiting family; but it is hard on the girls. We got home at around 7:30, which is about the time I’m usually putting Sophie in her pajamas and getting Bella headed in that direction as well. But since neither of them had dinner yet, I instead sat them down to eat. And as we hadn’t had dinner yet either, Dom and I joined them. I shared some leftover shepherds pie with Sophie who also had yogurt, grapes, and rice puffs. Not a bad dinner, especially considering she’d seemed to have a bellyache most of the afternoon. I had to fight with Bella over every single bite (which is pretty standard and not necessarily a result of the day’s excitement) but eventually got her to eat a tortilla with peanut butter, some yogurt, some grapes and a few bites of Dom’s pasta. She’d jsut picked at her breakfast and lunch so I was determined she eat a decent dinner.
By the time the dinner battle had been fought, however, it was half past eight. Sophie fell asleep within minutes of beginning her nighttime nursing session. It’s been weeks since that happened. Usually I’ve been putting her down awake but content after nursing and nighttime prayers.
Even Bella fell asleep while we were getting her ready for bed. She nodded off while I was trying to do her hair so Dom carried her to bed. She woke up though and insisted on having her hair braided. So I propped her back up and did her hair while I had a rushed version of prayers and then Dom read a paragraph of Pooh just to prevent any protests that all necessary parts of the ritual had not been fulfilled. It was a sort of five minute Hamlet version of our usual routine.
A wonderful day but tiring. The only reason I’m still awake is because I had an asthma attack after we put the girls down and I’m not wired with the steroid inhaler. I suppose I should try to sleep.
