Christ is Risen!

Alleluia!  Happy Easter, everyone.  Posting this past week has been light…okay, nonexistent.  It’s been a busy week. 

Naomi has been doing some seasonally appropriate drawings.  She drew this one, which I meant to post on Good Friday, but didn’t get to it:

If you click on it, you can see that she included weeping angels and clouds blotting out the sun. 

This one she drew last Sunday at Mass.  It begins with Good Friday in the lower right, moves to the tomb just to the left, then there’s the risen Christ (wounds included), and then he’s ascended up at the very top. 

She just decided to draw these. 

We all went to the Easter Vigil last night, beginning at 9 p.m.  Of course, the start time was 2 hours later than their normal bedtime.  Nobody complained about that, though.  They were excited to get dressed up in their Easter finery.

Simeon somehow became convinced that his Easter outfit was his cow costume.  I have no idea where this came from.  But he told anyone who commented on his outfit that it’s his cow costume.

Some of us like to ham it up for the camera.

And some of us like to ham it up differently:  “Take a picture of me with my Easter basket around my neck!”

When I was growing up, the Easter bunny always provided the baskets on the day, but our kids like to set them out, like stockings on Christmas. Okay, that’s fine.

This one was going to be a picture of just Hannah, but Naomi of the wild eyes snuck in at the last moment.

Simeon felt that he was wearing a cow costume, but he told all the females in his family (including me, at the church, in the silence before Mass began) that we looked beautiful in our dresses, like princesses.  That was sweet.

Oh, yeah, I was thinking we didn’t have any with our current fake smiler showing his stuff.  But here it is.

“Take a picture of me with my Easter basket in front of my face!”

The earrings (not pierced) and necklaces were made by Aunt Kate.  They were a huge hit.

The dark church got them all eventually, though.  These photos are from Michael’s phone.

They were out.

The lights, bells, Glorias, singing, sprinkling with water, organ, string quartet, etc., did not wake them.  Sim woke up during the Consecration, and Naomi and Hannah woke up during the closing hymn:  Jesus Christ is Risen today. 

They were more than ready to go right to bed when we got home just after midnight.  Michael and I tucked them away, did Easter bunny duty, and then went off to bed ourselves.  To be awakened at 7 a.m. by a cheery voice calling for “Daaaaaaadaaaa!”  When Michael went in the room, Naomi cheerfully said, “Happy Easter, Dada!”  Yup.  Nobody went back to sleep.  Although Sim wasn’t yet up, so he slept until 7:30, of all late hours!

Everyone enjoyed their Easter baskets.  Michael and I were still up in bed and heard some yelling from downstairs.  “Oh no, they’re fighting,” I said, preparing to run interference.  “No, they’re shouting for joy,”  Michael assured me.  I thought maybe it was just wishful thinking, but then I realized what they were saying:  YOU GOT ONE, TOO!!  Naomi came upstairs moments later to share the good news:  tickets to The Magic Flute for the girls! 

Okay, yes, that might seem like an odd thing to give to a 7 year old and a 5 year old, but they have recently discovered the story of The Magic Flute and then discovered that it’s playing in town soon.  They have loved every ballet they’ve gone to, so we’re going to see about the opera.  Michael’s pretty excited about taking them.  We got Simeon a kid’s CD telling of the story, since he’s fascinated by it, too, but I really wasn’t going to send a 2 year old to the opera.   

This afternoon we’re heading for the local relatives’ house, where we’ll have Easter dinner and another egg hunt.  We’ll also have a whole bunch of local friends who don’t have family in the area, so it will be a nice big gathering.

We’re looking forward to the Easter season!  Happy Easter everyone!