Happy Holy Saturday (2024)

Can I just say that I love Easter?  I mean, every Christian does, or should, I know: for He is risen!  Hallelujah!  And through His stripes we are healed!  And by His cross and resurrection, He has set us free!

What a beautiful celebration of life Easter is--of life here on earth, but more importantly, the eternal life to come.  It has become my #1 favorite holiday of the year (but ask me which is my favorite again as Christmastime approaches!).

I love everything about this holiday: the glorious spring weather, the beautiful liturgies, the pretty Easter dresses on my granddaughters, Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts...and of course, as always, I love having an excuse to host a family party at our house.

This year, our group is going to be relatively small. A college friend of two of our VA daughters-in-law has come into town with her family, so sons #2 and #3 and their families will be having a little reunion with this friend and celebrating Easter together about an hour away from us in Northern VA.  But son #4 and his four children (the triplets, 6, and their younger sister, 4) will be joining us for lunch after Mass, along with our son's wife's parents (who are local).  So we'll have ten gathered around our table.  And of course, said table is already set.  (Because there's nothing I love more than preparing for events such as this!)

My table will look even better tomorrow, when some of the people I love
most in the world are gathered around it!  I can hardly wait!

I decided to put a small Russell Stover solid chocolate bunny at the places of each of our guests, in memory of my paternal grandmother.  We always had Easter dinner at her house, and she always set an elegant table (and served leg of lamb with mint jelly, which my parents adored and I tolerated).  And Grandma always had a Russell Stover chocolate bunny on the table for each of her five grandchildren.  The ones we got in our Easter baskets were hollow, but the ones we got from Grandma were solid.  This is one of my fondest childhood memories.  (It just goes to show how easy it is to make a child happy!  It's the simplest things that mean the most.)

When the whole VA gang (more than 20 of us) is here on Easter, we don't often have a sit-down meal; it's usually buffet-style, and people just serve themselves on pretty paper plates in the kitchen and then pick a spot to sit, either at the kitchen table or in the dining room.  It's wonderfully chaotic.  I will miss the others tomorrow, chaos notwithstanding--but having just one family at a time is a rare treat, and very special, because with only four little ones involved, we can be a bit fancier.  I can break out the breakables!  

I love to set a pretty table, with a nice tablecloth.  But with so many young grandchildren always eating at my house, I have opted for this high-quality vinyl one that can be wiped down after every meal.  It looks like a real damask cloth (at least that's what I tell myself!), but it's so much less trouble to take care of.  

I was going to use cloth napkins; but Pioneer Woman's Easter napkins are just so stinkin' cute and I think they're more fun for the kids, so I decided to go with them.

I'm not doing much for dessert; everyone will be eating enough chocolate and jelly beans without Grammy adding lots of baked goods to the mix.  But I did get some delectable little cakes from our local bakery (moist yellow cake with cream on top, iced with a caramel glaze), and some adorable bunny- and egg-shaped Easter cookies from Aldi's (shortbread with Belgian chocolate and sprinkles).

Aren't these the cutest?!

The house looks festive.  We keep two small trees up throughout the year in our family room, and I like to decorate them according to the season.

This wooden basket, a gift from son #4 and his wife (picked up on their honeymoon in Malaysia) makes a lovely Easter decoration.  (When you put the handle of the basket down, it collapses and converts into a leaf-shaped tray!)  My husband got the marble eggs in Athens, back when he was flying overseas routinely in his job as an airline pilot.

We are planning a lunch of pork roast, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls.  Simple but delicious (I hope!).  One of these days, I'm going to have to learn to make leg of lamb like my grandmother used to; my husband is a big fan of lamb, and he for one would be very appreciative!

I kind of miss the days when there were lots of bloggers posting regularly, and they might have a blog link-up for "Show Us Your Easter Decor," or "What I Served for Easter Dinner."  I love seeing other people's ideas for food, decorations, and entertaining.

Anyhoo--

Before I go, I'm going to treat you to a smile-inducing picture of our sweet 4-year-old granddaughters after their recent Easter show at their preschool.  These two little darlings are cousins, classmates, and BFF's.

Happy, happy Easter, dear readers!

St. Patty’s Party Prep

Tomorrow afternoon, our VA gang (sons #2, 3, and 4, their wives, and their combined 14 kids, plus a good friend of two of our daughters-in-law) are coming to our house for a St. Patty's Day celebration.  We have lots of Irish-themed decor that stays up all year; but I've added a few touches.

Bottom right: pictures of our youngest son at the Cliffs of Moher.

Two small trees stay up in our family room all year and get decorated
according to the season/holiday.

The Irish gnome was an impulse buy, but I don't regret it!

Our youngest son as St. Patrick (All Saints Day parade, 2nd grade). 

We’re going to have green punch (that can be spiked or kid-friendly) and other fun beverages, corned beef and cabbage, pork chops and gravy, mashed potatoes, and an assortment of chips and dips and fruits and veggies.  For the kids, there will be Domino’s pizzas, because they may or may not be interested in the Irish fare.  I’ve made shamrock-shaped sugar cookies and caramel brownies with green sprinkles for dessert, and also Catholic writer Emily Stimpson Chapman’s Bailey’s Irish cream cake. (Yum!)  I’ve got party hats and beads and other favors ready to pass out.  I think I’m ready!

That accent wall in our kitchen was painted this colon by the former owners,
and I love it!  (The shade is literally called “Emerald Isle.”)

Our Aldi's has these every March, and they are magically delicious.

If we can get the kids to dress up in the silly headgear and beads and shamrock glasses and stick-on green mustaches and “tattoos,” I’m hoping I’ll be able to post some cute pictures of them next week.

Until next time--

May God in His wisdom and infinite love,

Look down on you always from Heaven above.

May He send you good fortune, contentment and peace,

And may all your blessings forever increase.

Slainte, dear readers!

Christmas Cheer (An Instagram Post...but on My Blog!)

I'm not on Instagram anymore.  My husband and I deleted our accounts a few years ago, and I haven't missed it.

Oops...I've just begun this post, and I've already told two lies. Mea culpa.  

Truth be told, I'm back on Instagram (as is my hubby), as of just recently.  But only because our youngest son is working on a short film project for his Master's program, and he's posting about it on there, and we don't want to miss any of those pictures and videos.  So that takes care of lie #1.

Even though I’m back “on,” I'm not really planning to post on IG, or to collect followers (L to the OL!); I'm just planning to stalk.  But not too much.  Over-stalking was one of the main problems I had that led me to give up all my social media accounts in the first place.

Okay then, what's lie #2, you ask?  I said I haven’t missed Instagram...but that's not true, because sometimes I do.

I miss some of my favorite Catholic "influencers" (hello, @elizabethfoss!).  I miss the awesome recipes and the gorgeous home decor ideas, and even the pop-up ads, believe it or not. (I am amazed by how Instagram seems to know exactly what kind of clothes I like to buy and wear.  It couldn't be that social media sites are tracking my every move...could it?)  But I am saving money, now that I don't see all those ads for things I never knew I wanted or needed.

Anyhoo--here are some pictures I might have posted on IG, back when I was a prolific IG poster (but certainly not an influencer!).  I just like how my house looks when it's decorated for Christmas, so I thought I'd share.  If I knew how to make a blog link-up, I would make one and have you show me pictures of your Christmas decorations.  (But in this new, rapidly changing world where even Instagram will probably soon be obsolete, does anyone even remember blog link-up parties?)

May you enjoy your social media accounts without over-stalking (you’re probably better than I am, dear readers). And may your Christmas season be merry and bright!

Happy Gaudete Sunday!

 

The tablecloth is fake—not Battenburg lace, but cheap, kid-friendly vinyl.

The candles are fake, with kid-friendly LED lights instead of real flames.

These are the things we do to keep our home manageable and safe during Advent for visiting grandchildren, 13 of them here in VA aged 8 and under.

Not everything is fake, though; the joy of the season is absolutely real.

Planning a Holiday Tea Party

These days, it would be very easy for me to fall into a pit of despair over what is happening in our world.  I could sit paralyzed with fear, worrying about what kind of future our grandchildren will have if things don't change, and fast. I'm not going to go into details here, because this isn't that kind of blog.  But there are goings-on afoot that truly terrify me--and some of them are hitting way too close to home.

But my husband and I are doing the Bible in a Year study with Fr. Mike Schmitz, which makes us realize that none of the things that are happening in the 21st century are new at all. Throughout salvation history, misguided and sinful man has time after time turned away from God and suffered greatly for it.  But in the end, God our merciful Father is in charge and He does love His children; so in spite of our disobedience, there is always hope for us.

ANYWAY, sorry for starting out as a real Debbie Downer on this Monday morning (as if Monday mornings aren't kind of the worst for many already!); I'm going to change my tune here and tell you what I'm doing to combat the blues:

I'm planning a St. Nicholas Tea Party/Brunch/Cookie Exchange in early December, for all the Pearl ladies here in VA (including my five oldest granddaughters)!  

I've got lots of ideas for the food and decor already, but I find myself doing Internet searches for "Christmas Tea Party Ideas" quite frequently now, and here are some of the images that have popped up that make me feel all merry and bright.

I'm trying to decide if I'll use my beloved blue-and-white transferware for the party.  Or instead, I might use the lovely holiday china that my mother-in-law left me, as I have exactly 10 place settings of that and there will be 10 of us around the table.  I'll be sure to post pictures of our event--which will probably not quite live up to these Pinterest-worthy images, but I'm going to do my best.  I can't tell you how excited I am about this little all-girls party!

With visions of sugarplums (and dainty crustless tea sandwiches) dancing in your heads now, and all the gloominess of the beginning of this post hopefully blotted out of your mind, I wish you a wonderful week. Enjoy your families.  And make every day a holiday!  (That's my new motto!)

Just Because: Happy Holy Saturday, 2021

Happy Holy Saturday!

This Easter is going to be so much better than it was last year, isn't it?  On Easter 2020, my husband and I got all dressed up and watched Mass on TV in our family room—just the two of us—live-streamed from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame.  Our little local parish church here in semi-rural VA is not nearly as spectacular as that glorious basilica...but we are just over the moon about how much more special this holiest of holidays is going to be in 2021.  We are over the moon that we are going to be in the actual presence of Our Lord at Mass in our church, that we will receive Him in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that we will be gathered together with our fellow parishioners, after spending so much of the past year starved of these experiences that we used to assume would always be available to us and will certainly never take for granted again!  Hallelujah!!

My husband and I are planning to go to the Easter Vigil Mass, and then on Sunday at noon we will have more than 20 loved ones at our house for an Easter brunch (I already mentioned these plans on the blog, I know!). By the way, I was asked in the comment section of that post for a couple of recipes, so here they are.  (You’re welcome! ;))

I always thought Christmas was my holiday wheelhouse...but what I am beginning to realize is that although it tends to come with a good bit less hoopla and much lower expectations of awesomeness than Christmas (just simple Easter baskets instead of major gifts, and not nearly as many decorative elements about the house), Easter might be my favorite holiday of all.  The fact that Christ rose triumphantly from the dead on Easter, and through His Crucifixion and Resurrection redeemed all of mankind is obviously the main reason; but I also love everything about Easter and the Easter season: the warmth of spring and flowers blooming; Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets; bow ties on little boys and bonnets on little girls; and bunnies, bunnies everywhere.  Oh yes, and CHOCOLATE!   Easter makes me 100% happy.  It is the most stress-free, joyful celebration of the year, IMHO.

We gave our kids/grandkids their family Easter baskets early, and the 3-and-a-1/2-year-old identical twin boys, the sons of our fourth oldest (who have a triplet sister and a younger sister), were utterly fascinated with the cheap wind-up dinosaurs we hid in plastic eggs. Like I said: there are lower expectations of awesomeness on Easter, and it costs next to nothing to give gifts that make the little ones happy.

I decorate the house for Easter, but as I said, not nearly as much as I do at Christmas. 

Just looking at that collage makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.  What's not to love about Easter?  It's just the best, in every way.  God bless us every one.  This Easter and always.

(P.S. At Christmas, I'll probably be telling you all about how I love that holiday the most!  Fickle, fickle.)

(Linking up with Rosie et. al., here.)

The Stockings Are Hung by the Chimney with Care

My husband and I are eagerly anticipating Christmas, and having our youngest son and his wife (whose blog handle is Babisiu) here with us in VA over the holiday. As of now, those plans are going forward...and I don't know what I'll do if they fall apart, because it's been MORE THAN A YEAR--incredibly!--since we saw those two cute kids in person.

Our "baby" and his lovely curly-headed bride, who got married in September of 2019, flew here to be with us last Thanksgiving.

Remember holidays like this?  What a difference a year makes!

They were also supposed to fly up for a Pearl family reunion in NY, celebrated at our "Oyster Haven" VRBO house on Lake Champlain, this past July.  But he's in the Army, and due to the Covid pandemic there were strict travel restrictions in place for all military personnel at his base.  So we didn't see them in the summer.

My husband and I were planning to fly out to be with them at their house this Thanksgiving, but alas, our boy came down with Covid and his last official day of quarantine was the Friday after Thanksgiving.  (He's fine now, by the way; he had flu-like symptoms but he has fully recovered.  And Babisiu never even caught it from him--so I guess it's a really contagious virus...but sometimes, inexplicably, it's not.)  Anyhoo, needless to say, that recent Thanksgiving trip was a no-go.

After hearing all of that, I'm sure you can understand how much I'm looking forward to this upcoming visit at Christmas.  The basement is all ready for them!

When we bought our "new" VA house in 2017, it was, as far as we were concerned, move-in ready.  It was not a fixer-upper, which we'd both decided we didn't want to deal with at our age (especially after coming from a home we'd worked so hard to make perfect for us over the two-and-a-half decades we lived there).  The one project we did hope to tackle was finishing off the basement, so that we would have a big family room/playroom for our grandkids and a guest retreat (mostly for our youngest son and his wife, the only ones in the family at this point in time who don't reside near us in VA).  We paid someone else to have the bathroom put in.  But during the turbulent year that was 2020, my amazing husband finished off the rest--electrical, insulation, lighting, walls and ceilings--he did it all, with me as his bumbling assistant.  And now we have what is almost a little apartment down there.  The only thing missing is a kitchen!

The bedroom is small, but really cozy.

After we finished the basement project, we got a discarded fireplace mantle from one of our sons and his wife, and we mounted it on the wall in the play area of the basement.  I decided to give it the trompe l'oeil treatment (which is something I've always enjoyed, because I love me some whimsy when it comes to home decor).  I'm so excited that it gives me a place to hang stockings for the two eagerly-awaited Christmas guests that will be staying down there.

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that my kiddos will soon be there!  Seeing them again is the only Christmas gift I need this year.  God willing, that's the gift I'll get!