Weekend Recap

Our weekend sort of began on Thursday night. Our son-in-law's grandmother died and the funeral was to be held in another town. Mark and I drove down after work on Thursday to keep our granddaughter while they went to the funeral on Friday. We had a lot of fun playing with our sweet girl. She is two through and through.

Pop playing baseball with her.
I chased the balls. I had over
11,000 steps on Friday.
Look at the photo - I caught
the ball in motion!

Sweet baby rolling in the leaves

Pop pulling Miss E in her luxury
wagon - it even has a cup holder!

On Saturday, I went to Art in the Lot which was at our church . . . in the parking lot. I saw lots of friends and lots of cool items. My sister-in-law had a booth and I bought a few things from her and I bought a tiny present for my daughter and daughter-in-law at two other booths. This is such a cool event. I could have spent a lot of money in several booths!

This is my sister-in-law's booth.
She is an amazing artist.
She draws the design and then
carves the stamp and
then inks it one color
at a time.

I love the redbird (cardinal)!!

Saturday night we met friends at one of our neighborhood restaurants for an early dinner. It is so nice to be able to walk to dinner. They came back by the house for a nightcap and a little conversation. I didn't take a single picture but I did drink an awesome margarita!

Sunday morning we headed to church and Sunday School. Sunday was All Saints Sunday and it is one of my favorite worship services of the year. We honor those who have gone before us in the last year (November to November). I have tried to write words about this service and its meaning but I can't find any of the right words. I type and erase. Type again . . .and erase. My friend writes the names of all those who died on ribbons which are tied onto a bar/banner. This banner is brought in during the beginning of the service while a bagpiper leads the procession. The congregation then sings, "For All the Saints." No, we don't worship saints and we don't pray to saints. During the communion (Lord's supper) liturgy, the names are called and a candle is lit for each member who died this past year. This year was particularly hard because we had a couple of close friends who were among those named.  We are a large congregation but we lost 38 members this year which is a lot. We also have a tree of remembrance and place a hand painted ornament on the tree for each member who died. We have different ornaments in a basket for others to write the names of friends or family members who might have died this year.

Our senior pastor took this photo and
I may have borrowed it! The
ribbon banner is in the background.
Our pastor also made the wooden
tiered box for the candles. 

The bagpiper - he played during the
processional and then he played 
Amazing Grace at the end of the service
and led those who wished to go to
our prayer garden.

tree of remembrance

Don's ornament - he is our friend
who died while we were in Ireland.

extra ornaments - butterflies

After church we headed to Sunday School and then to my mother-in-law's house for Sunday lunch. It is amazing to me that we've been able to keep the tradition of Sunday lunch going even when she is unable to cook. We've taken turns providing lunch or we've picked up take-outs or we've ordered fried chicken from the Pig and made some sides. For the last two Sundays, Mark's sister has been in town and she very graciously cooked lunch. Grandmother loves having her family around the dining table on Sundays.

What did you do this weekend? Does your church celebrate All Saints Day? Do you eat Sunday lunch as a family?