Happy Birthday Daddy!

Birthday weekend for Robbie, who turned the big 4-7 this year.  50 looms, but we won't dwell on that.  Since his birthday was on a Saturday, he decided he wanted to have dinner with his parents on Friday, and then a ski getaway to the Porkies over the weekend.  We aim to please around here, so that's what we did!  The snow, because of our recent warm temperatures, was a little sketchy, but a Friday storm brought enough new stuff to make skiing do-able for Rob and the kids, while I hung out reading my book in the lodge.  Being "Snowburst Festival" was also a plus, with games, live music, and fireworks to boot!  Great fun all the way around.  Happy Birthday, Rob!

Feast Day Fun: The Chair of St. Peter

February certainly seems to have a lot of feast days that we want to celebrate.  Today's feast day, we gathered around the table to see this, and I asked the kids to guess which day it was:

"Colby the Booksmart" immediately said "keys and an upside down cross.  Something to do with Peter."   YES!  Something to do with Peter!! Quinn chimed in "given the keys to heaven by Christ, and crucified upside down because he didn't think he was worthy to be martyred the same way Jesus was!"  Wow.  Just when you think nothing ever sinks in.  In between playing handsies and making rude noises... they remember what they're taught.  Who knew.  Except, what I would've guessed to be the easiest question turned out to be the hardest for them.  "And where was St. Peter martyred and buried?"  Uhhhh... Jerusalem?  NO.  Uhhhhh.... Rome?  Yes.  But where in Rome?  Uhhhhhhh... looking at a cross or something?  He was looking at something. They remembered that.  And you could look at it, too.  Yes.  The Egyptian Obelisk in the middle of the Circus - it is still standing, and it's the last thing he saw before he died.  But WHERE?  Uhhhh.... St John something.  Come on people!  THINK!!  This is like "who is buried in Grant's Tomb"! The kids gave up.  Rob had to tell them.  St Peter's Basilica!  Quinn was incredulous.  "Why would they murder him in his own church!?!?"  Oh goodness.  NO.  Had to straighten up the time line on that one just a bit :).     

Then I brought out this pork butt roast, and they all laughed when I called it pork butt, but that's what it's called, and I chose it BECAUSE it's a butt.

Why would we have a feast day about Peter's butt???  "That's a little sacreligious, Mom" Quinn said.  But Reagan got it.  "Because he sat on it in a CHAIR!!!"  Ding ding ding!  Five points for little miss!!  A feast day about a chair.  But not just ANY chair.  The chair of the first Pope.  Which is still THERE, by the way, encased in this enormous throne created by Bernini, which I went to mass in the presence of, and saw with my very own little eyes, not 8 months ago (#tripofalifetime #getusedtomebringingupitalyfortherestofmydays) ....

So a feast day about a piece of furniture, but not REALLY.  After reading Matthew 16:13-19, we saw how Christ gave Peter HIS authority to bind and loose both on earth and in heaven.  And then in Isaiah 15:15, 19-25, we read about how that act was prophesied long before it happened.  And we talked about the necessity and legitimacy of that authority, and apostolic succession, and what cathedra means in Latin (chair), and where the word "cathedral" came from.  It was a good discussion, which was followed by this for dessert, which everyone was a big fan of:

I thought they turned out pretty cute, myself! 

St. Peter, pray for us!!  Christ's church and our whole world need your prayers!

Flying Time

Rob is finally get some flying time!  Yeah for sun!  Of course, that sun causes HEAT, which leads to SLUSH, and that leads to some difficulty getting a plane to... you know... fly off the ground.  He almost had to spend the night on the lake and wait for some freezing temperatures.  But he made it up in the air eventually.  These are the types of challenges Rob loves, and that his wife dreads.  But this weather is making him happy happy happy, and that benefits all of us!

Alice In Wonderland

Mommy Daughter Date!  It felt SO GOOD to get out of the house, and do something fun just Reagan and I!  We met up first at our friends' the Sommerville for an Alice-inspired lunch.  Then off to the play with my friend Liz and her family!  Afterwards, our local toy store hosted a fun "tea party" with face painting, tea, cookie decorating, and balloon animals.  Reagan decided that she MUST have a balloon animal.  And so we waited.  And waited. And waited.  For well over an hour.  Luckily for us, we were entertained by a magician/juggler who singled Reagan out from the line to entertain personally.  What a fun, fun day!!!!

Feast Day Fun: St. Valentine's Day

When Rob and I were in Rome, we visited the grave of St. Valentine at the Church of Santa Prassede, which is really cool.  Makes this feast day mean a little bit more, and gave us a feeling of "I met this guy!" (even though we didn't actually MEET him) ;).  Reagan made heart-shaped cakes for dessert, as we read about the Saint himself.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Feast Day Fun: Our Lady of Lourdes

We're a day off with this one, as Rob and the kids were skiing yesterday, so we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes this evening instead.  As we did last year, we dined on chicken cordon bleu (because Our Lady wore a blue belt during her apparition way back on this day in 1858 France, and "cordon bleu" means.. you guessed it... blue belt).  We talked about the young peasant girl Bernadette, the grotto, the spring in the grotto, the whole thing.  In keeping with the French and blue themes, dessert was blueberry crepes with ice cream.  Some day, we will visit the shrine in France.  Mark my words.  In the meantime, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Ice Mass

Second annual Ice Mass at Our Lady of the Snows last night, and Rob took the kids.  This is so amazing to me.  The altar top was cut from a slab of Portage Lake, the chapel itself took weeks to build by volunteers.  Weather was perfect, turn out was twice what it was last year.  Such a cool (literally) thing.  Still sacred.  Just... outside under the stars, surrounded by God's great white earth.