Easter 2014

As much as I love Christmas, Easter is hands down my favorite festival of the church year.  It's been a few years since I've been able to go to services for the entire 3 days and then Easter Sunday, and it's going to be a few more until Judith's old enough to sit quietly through them, but I can't wait to get back into the swing of going.

Our services were absolutely fantastic: our pastor had a really, really good sermon, and the music was really good as well.  Being raised in a high Lutheran church, it was really refreshing to have the high liturgy again!  Judith was on her best behavior (something I always celebrate because some weeks it's really dicey) and didn't create a huge ruckus.

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Easter 2013

Easter is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  The services throughout Holy Week are rich with tradition, as are the liturgies on Easter Sunday.  There is something glorious in the proclamation "Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!", followed by the singing of the amazing hymns proclaiming Christ's victory over the grave.  The one thing I missed this year (and last year, for that matter) was playing with the brass ensemble to accompany the liturgy.  Ah well, there's always next year!

We started our Easter celebration a little early by participating in the church egg hunt Saturday morning.  This was Judith's first year searching for eggs, and she actually did really well (and got a really nice haul!).  This year there was an extra bonus, as one of the members brought a bunch of her show rabbits for the kids to look at and pet.  Judith spied a beautiful brown bunny when we went inside the church, and immediately called it a "doggie" (the rabbit was on a harness, so I think that's where the association came from).  Once she realized it was a rabbit, she kept saying "hop hop!"

I felt a little sad that evening, because it was the first year in a long time that I didn't attend Easter Vigil services.  I took Judith last year, and it was a nightmare because she did not want to be in the sanctuary and was an overtired, cranky mess.  I told John that there was no way I was going to tempt fate this year, and decided to keep her home so we could observe a normal bed time.  I made up for it, though, by watching the masses from the Vatican and the basilica in Washington, DC.

Easter Sunday was not a chaotic mess for once.  John had to get up early for the sunrise service (his last one, thank goodness), but Judith and I were able to take our time getting ready since we planned to take separate cars so Judith would only have to sit through 1 service and would still be able to fit in all of her extra vest and breathing treatments that she needs right now.  I was bummed because I didn't have a voice and couldn't sing the hymns, but otherwise it was the service I expected it to be.

After church, my parents came to our house for Easter lunch.  We placed some eggs in the front yard for Judith to hunt, and she found and sifted through her Easter baskets.  I was impressed that she didn't melt down too much toward the end of the day, considering it was somewhat busy with a lot of stimulation.

Happy Easter!

Out of all of the seasons of the church year, Easter is by far my favorite.  Speaking the proclamation "Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!" has always been special, and in a way magical.  This year, though, those words feel even more special.  Realistically, we know the odds of Judith outliving us like any child should are very low.  We know that, because of her CF, death looms much closer.  However, that small proclamation reminds me that no matter what happens to Judith, she will be well cared for because of the promises of the resurrection.

But enough of my deep, brooding thoughts.

I love attending services at this time of year, and I can't wait until Judith is older and can appreciate (heck, more like can actually sit through!) the entire Triduum.  Last year I took her to Maundy Thursday services, because let's face it: she was still sleeping all.the.time. We had zero issues.  She was ok last year during Easter Vigil, but had a meltdown when she heard me chanting and I wasn't with her (she calmed down once I was able to go back to her).  This year, I didn't take her to Maundy Thursday because I knew Vigil would be a battle - thanks to the "raging success" (/sarcasm) we had on Ash Wednesday, I would've been happy if she made it through half of the service.  Ha!  She barely lasted through 1/4 of it.  Oh well - she's still too young, and it doesn't help that evening services coincide with bedtime.  Needless to say, she didn't get to sleep until almost 9:30, 2 hours after her normal bedtime.

That made for an exciting 5:15 am wakeup call this morning for sunrise service.  Oh, and she barely slept in the car on the way to the church, and thought it would be an awesome idea to take only a 20 minute nap between 6:15 and 12:30.  Really though, I may complain, but she was pretty darn good considering all of this!

We spent some time this afternoon with my side of the family, sans my dad - long story short, we've been worried and stressed because he was admitted to the hospital about a week and a half ago, but thankfully will be coming home tomorrow (provided everything goes smoothly!).  It felt awkward without dad here, and I missed having him here.  We did have a nice dinner though, Judith made out like a bandit with her basket goodies, we had a small egg hunt in the yard (and realized that Judith still hates grass), and just enjoyed the time together.

Naturally I can't make a post about a big holiday without some pictures.  For your viewing pleasure: