2016 Week 13 In Review

Christ is Risen Alleluia!!  

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

The week in pictures: 

 This week's job was to unpack the boxes!  We are loving our new home - praise God for His many blessings - we are so grateful for our little bit of "heaven on earth."

 Hot Cross buns for Good Friday!

 Community Easter egg hunt on Holy Saturday. 

 Getting ready for Easter by decorating eggs - I got 3 different type on clearance last year so the kids got to try them out (yes, I packed them and brought them with us...)  The chalk eggs were kind of fun but I'm not sure that black eggs are my favorite.

 The egg sprayer looked more fun than it was.   It didn't work all that well and made a big mess so I don't recommend it;-)

 We really liked the "majestic egg dye" easy and no mess.  :-)

 Getting ready for the Easter Vigil!

 We did not bring our old couch with us on the moving truck so we bought our first couch ever as a family.  Nothing fancy (a Big Lot's Special buy) but it was super exciting for the kids and we are really happy with it.

 Luke lost his first tooth on Holy Saturday and on Easter Sunday he found a "golden quarter" :-)

Our Easter table!

Praise God for His many blessings!!  He is Truly Risen and we are so grateful for the Paschal Mystery and our Catholic faith!  May your Easter Celebration be truly blessed - enjoy the Easter octave!  Our prayers are with you, please pray for us!

The Triduum and Easter at the Lawsons

On Holy Thursday the kids and I made this representation of the Last Supper  from Catholic Icing to get ready for the evening Holy Thursday Mass.  Not quite like the original but the kids really enjoyed coloring each Apostle and putting them in place.

On Good Friday we made Hot Cross buns.  The recipe came from Evelyn Birge Vitz's "A Continual Feast."

Then on Saturday, we took the kids to the longest Easter Vigil Mass St. Peter's has had yet since everything that could take place through the RCIA did including a whole family being baptized - just like the early Church :-).  It was beautiful!  The Vigil began at 8:30pm and ended after 11:00pm.  

The kids waiting for the Vigil to begin

William and Miriam
get ready for the Easter Vigil

Miriam, Luke and I spent a great deal of the time in the back at least while the Baptisms, Confirmations and 1st Communions took place. But what an amazing tradition to share in - waiting for Jesus to Rise and fulfil His promise of Redemption.  It is so beautiful to be part of this ancient vigil and celebration of Christ's eternal Love and to enter into the Easter joy shown forth in so many ways throughout this Vigil.  My favorite moment is after sitting in the dark through the readings of Salvation History, we get to sing the Gloria and all the Church is lit up and the bells ring to celebrate!



We enjoyed a nice Easter Dinner with Grandma Lawson and later for dessert had a yummy Ice Crem pie.



Christ is Risen Alleluia - now we can celebrate for 50 more days!!



Easter Egg Rainbow Cookies

We like to make special cookies for Easter.  The recipe takes a little preparation but it is a lot of fun.  The recipe actually comes from a children's craft book "I Can Make a Rainbow" that I bought many years ago.

1 cup of softened butter or magarine                        1 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 cup white sugar                                                 3 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar                                                1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs                                                                     1/2 teaspoon salt
 Cream butter and sugar; add eggs and vanilla; mix all dry ingredients separately and add to creamed butter and blend well. Divide into four (or more) separate bowls and add food coloring of your choice.

The night before you make the cookie dough and separate it into 4 or 5 separate bowls and color the dough.  It takes a bit of work to mix the food coloring in but the kids like to help with this part.

Then you divide each color into two balls - you'll be making two "rainbows."

Next, you roll each color into a long strip between sheets of wax paper.

And stack them one of each color on top of each other.  You do this twice so you have two separate stacks.

When they are all stacked you put them in the refrigerator over night.



The next day, you slice them into 1/4" strips.

The form them into whatever shapes you would like - we like to make Easter eggs, rainbows, letters, and crosses but the dough is really easy to form and you can put two or even three strips together for a bigger cookie or more pattern variety.

Happy Easter!