Easter Weekend

Well . . .I'm only a week behind posting about Easter. Better late than never, right? 

Let me just tell you a little about Holy Week when you work in a church. IT IS BUSY!!

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we had a service each day at noon with a guest speaker and then lunch. The service lasted 30 minutes or less and the lunch can last 30 minutes or less. We hope that will encourage people to come during their lunch break. My co-worker, Marie and I worked as greeters each of those days.

Thursday was Maundy Thursday. I grew up in a denomination that didn't observe Lent or Advent. Just let me tell you that I love both and they add so much meaning. On Thursday evening, I stayed and worked the Welcome Desk and then I "sneaked" into the back of our contemporary worship space for the service. It was a service of word, song, and communion with TONS of candles and it was so good. One of our Associate Pastors, Amy, talked about the thin spaces between us and God and how the communion table straddles those two spaces. I always love to think about not only Jesus being on the other side of that table but about all of those who have gone before us.

Friday morning dawned bright and early and I took Harvey to the vet for a check up and his shots. He did really well and the vet was pleased that he was down to 12 1/2 pounds (he is a LONG cat - not fat). I met my friends for lunch. We meet once a month and I love those three women. Friday evening was our Good Friday service and there are no words to describe it but I'll try to give you an idea. It is a dark and moving service. The service begins with multiple candles at the front and by the end of the service, the sanctuary is in total darkness except for one candle - the Christ candle. Then one of the pastors slams (literally slams) the large Bible closed and our pastors recess carrying the one lighted candle while someone beats out 33 times on the tympani. Everyone leaves in total silence and no one speaks until they are out of the building. The sanctuary was full so I would think there were probably about 800 people there. 

Saturday morning I headed to my WW meeting and then I worked on the food that I was taking to our Easter family lunch. We actually have our first Easter "morning" service on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. Over the years we have found that we cannot seat everyone who wants to attend on Easter and we definitely can't find a parking space for everyone. There were over 500 at the Saturday evening service. I was able to go to worship with Mark which was wonderful. We stopped at my mother-in-law's house to drop off our food for the next day and my sister-in-law snapped a quick photo of us.

The music at all of the services was spectacular and the sermons were amazing. After the Good Friday service on the night before, when we left the sanctuary it was dark and the cross was draped in black. The sanctuary was transformed for the Easter services.

Sunday morning, I was up bright and early and it was COLD! What the heck? I had a new dress from Tuckernuck and I didn't want to wear a winter coat over it. I remembered that I had brought home a cashmere scarf from Israel that I hadn't given away and it had the exact pink in it to match my dress. It was important to have something to keep me warm because we (employees) had to park about two blocks away in order for our parking lot and nearby spaces to be available for visitors. It was not quite 7:00 a.m. when I was walking so I was glad for the warm wrap.

My co-worker, Marie, and I matched the hydrangeas so we took a quick photo while we worked the Welcome Center.

I made cute baggies of Peeps for our volunteers who help us each week in the Welcome Center.

I wasn't with my family on Sunday morning but they all shared pictures. Our son and our daughter-in-law and granddaughter, along with several of their friends, attended our church that day. At one time they were all members at Trinity but have moved further away so attend different churches now. 

Mark and sweet granddaughter

Our son, Glenn and our daughter-in-
law, Lauren, and granddaughter

The whole crew - Wynn, Lauren, Emma,
Mallory and Brian and their three children, and
Glenn (as an aside, Brian is a manager with our
insurance company and drove 30-45 minutes on the
night that our house burned to be with us). As a parent,
it brings me great joy that both of our "children"
have good friends

Our daugher, son-in-law, and sweet granddaughter attended their church but were kind enough to send photos. Sweet granddaughter is wearing her mama's dress that was hand made by my mother-in-law. We showed pictures to my mother-in-law but she didn't remember. She made that dress for Laura to wear to Pop George's (Mark's twin brother) and Aunt Alice's wedding. I'm trying to remember what year -- maybe 89 or 90? Way back then, my mother-in-law told me that she quit counting when she crossed the $150 mark. I wish you could see the dress up close. The lace and the french hand sewing are amazing. It is so special to see it on our sweet granddaughter. They even sent pictures of her hunting eggs.

Sweet girl wearing her mommy's dress

Our son-in-law, Scott and our daughter,
Laura and our sweet granddaughter

My sister-in-law, Alice (same one mentioned above) did the flower arrangements for the tables. Aren't they beautiful? She is so talented.

dining room table (grown up
table)

fun bunny decorations that
my mother-in-law already had

breakfast room table (kid's table--I ate
at the kid's table!) Look at those
cute napkin rings that
my other sister-in-law found

After cleaning up the lunch dishes and visiting for a while, I headed home and studied and took my final. I don't have my grade yet but feel ok about it. I mentioned this in another post this week but I'm happy to have a little time without studying. I am sad that my advisor told me that I don't need to take another religion class!