We had a Blessed Easter.
Holy Week had full choirs again and all of the Masses held a power and fullness that feeds the soul.
Dyeing eggs despite high egg prices amid pandemic/Ukraine War/bird flu inflation was colorful.
Easter morning with all of girls under one roof fills me with joy.
We had an Easter egg hunt with a growing crew of cousins and adults onlooking.
Alleluia! He Is Risen, Indeed!
Joy to the World the Lord is Come!
Advent's season of preparation, was a solid reminder of getting our lives and souls in shape for Jesus's coming. Father Bill's weekly homilies restated his call for more personal prayer during Advent. By the lighting of the third week's candle I took it seriously. I deleted my Twitter account, which as of the past few months, I had been regularly sucked into for news updates and wasted hours on stress increasing posts, and I downloaded the Hallow App and scheduled some prayer reminders.
With a more peaceful mindset, we got to the physical preparation for Christmas. We picked out a tree and got it decorated. Again this year Emma and Rachael's ornaments didn't go on and it felt a little empty. Rachael was able to come over and join us for a big cookie baking session. We made dozens and dozens of cookies, we listened to music, and chatted, and had a wonderful time. It looked and smelled like Christmas. We wrapped presents to send to Colorado and put them in the mail. Happily it didn't take long at the post office but boy had shipping prices gone up. Jim and I took an evening and did some shopping together. It was nice to have him around in the evening and weekends to do all of the holiday activities. Johanna got to be a reader at her 3rd grade Advent prayer service. We were doing all of these Christmas activities with our masks on and a rising worry about the pandemic.
Maryland's Department of Health was hacked and the COVID tracking info was off line from Dec 4 until Dec 20 when limited data became available. I felt like we were flying blind. The hospitalization numbers were still being updated daily and they were creeping up a little every day. A new variant, Omicron, was in the news and looming. Great Aunt Liz reached out about our Christmas Eve party the first week of December, asking if we could take extra steps to keep it safe. Aunt Liz has breast cancer and a heart condition and I was happy to do what I could to reduce risks. I reached out to my siblings, suggested getting Rapid at-home tests to take before coming over, and getting boosters or vaccines. I was really disappointed when I got push back from some of them. By the week of Christmas, the rapid tests were hard to find. By the 23rd hospitalizations were going up sharply. Aunt Liz, Theo, Kelly, Alfredo, and Lucia all decided not to come over. Then Henry canceled because he wasn't feeling well.
We got ready to host the smaller but still large crowd. Christmas Eve we woke up and took our rapid covid tests, we were all negative.
Families began to arrive. Joe wasn't feeling well so he didn't come over, but Aunt Magaly and their 6 kids came over to drop off gifts and to do the cousin family picture. We decided since the weather was mild that we would do the picture outside. We sent Los Jauquets home with food for the family after the picture. We had the house windows open, 2 air purifiers running, and we set up the front porch with plastic sheeting, a heater, and Christmas lights and blankets, so that everyone could spread out as we ate and visited.
The younger cousins did their gift exchange, the smaller numbers made everything go much faster. The older cousins did their exchange downstairs in the basement as was the tradition. And the adults had our white elephant exchange in the living room. My dad stole a giant tin sign of Wisconsin that Jim had added to the mix. We were glad to be together, but trying to be careful and many of us wore our masks when not eating. We were happy to trade some comfort for the gift of being together.
We did a quick clean up and then went to Mass at OLV. We were in the gym where Johanna was singing in the children's choir. They did a beautiful medley of "What Child is this?" with the Junior choir. Afterward we came home and then the girls headed off to feed their cats at their apartments. Emma drove the whole crew first to her apartment to feed Bean and then to Rachael's townhouse to feed Leia. Jim and I got some wrapping done while they were gone. We ate and then opened the gifts from Colorado before a reasonable bedtime. It was so nice to have them all under the same roof for Christmas.
Christmas morning I was the first one up, and got the lights on and the coffee started before Johanna began her painstaking process of waking up each of her sisters. I got back to bed in time to wake Jim well before the girls came into our room. Each year we do the Christmas alphabet game, and before we started Rachael requested we speed run the game, saying we had prepared our whole lives for this. We all laughed, agreed and got to it. We all sang O Little Town of Bethlehem and then headed into the living room for gifts. We shared gifts and then shared breakfast. News of Covid began to trickle in. First it was Ed's dad, testing positive in the ER after the 10PM Christmas Eve Mass. The Kurek's would now be skipping Christmas Dinner at my Dad's.
We had a great easy day of family games and a video call with Jim's Mom, Dad, and brother. Then we headed over to my Dad's for dinner where it would just be us and Becky and Erik's family. As we enjoyed dinner and the cousins played a card game of spoons, we found out Lilian was positive from her test on the 23rd. Emma and Rachael went back to their own places that night and we went to bed with Covid creeping in.
On the day after Christmas, Erik tested positive and Ed was ill. Gradually over the next few days seven family members tested positive and a bunch more had symptoms and were told to presume they were positive too. Jim had cold symptoms and did most of his work over the phone. I had a raging headache and Emma felt yucky. Emma and I went to a testing center on the 27th and our PCR tests came back negative. But maybe... Rapid tests are not available for purchase anywhere and PCR tests have really long wait lines. The state has opened a number of mass testing centers again. We are all hoping that the Omicron variant will be less dangerous but it is spreading like wildfire and Delta is still around. the saddest part is that hospitalizations are overstressing our health care system.
The Christmas season continues and sadly so does this pandemic.
Most of our girls are leaving or have left the Trick or Treat stage but Johanna is prime candy gathering age. Because of the split we were a little unsure how we were going to approach the holiday. We knew we wanted to have our friends over: The Brinks, Arciagas, Shumakers and Arnolds. These families have become intertwined in our lives and I am so grateful. And at the same time Halloween really is focused around our kids and they were heading in multiple directions. Bridget wanted to hang out with friends from middle school, Megan had a few parties to attend, and Johanna didn't quite have a direction but wanted to be social. She's the youngest child out of all of our friends kids, so there isn't a built in playmate when we get together. In the end it all worked out.
We carved pumpkins on Saturday and I got the seeds roasted. Megan had a Halloween/birthday party that night so she did a quick change into Megara from the Hercules movie, as we finished out carving.
Johanna was dressing up as a Hogwarts student this year. Megan volunteered to take Johanna around trick or treating and Jo was thrilled. Megan grabbed one of the robes and joined her in costume. Megan asked to have a few people in the backyard for a fire pit after taking Johanna around. The adults would be in the driveway for a firepit and handing out candy. The weather was great, a little chilly but not bad. Johanna finished up trick or treating sooner than we expected but was happy with her haul and had enjoyed herself. She would hang out a little with each group and watched a movie before heading to bed. Johanna also participated in the Trunk or Treat at St. Mark's the weekend before and got to see school friends there. We were stocked with candy.
Each year as they grow up holidays shift a little bit more to something new. Each year I savor the traditions but enjoy the new moments that our current situation provide.
Easter 2021
What a joyful day! Alleluia!
Jesus Christ is Risen!
We were so blessed to be able to celebrate together after a strange and difficult year. We were able to enjoy our family traditions. The dynamic is changing as the girls get older. It is sweet to enjoy it and savor it. It is also lovey to see the girls not living at home, desiring these things and doing some on their own.
We kept the house Lenten, and on Fridays since we couldn't do soup before stations at church, the girls and I did soup and watched "The Chosen" series on our Fridays. Then Holy Week arrived. We transitioned the church from purple to white and attended Holy Thursday liturgy, we transitioned the church from white to red and for the first time covered the crucifix at the request of our new Pastor, Fr Bill and participated in the Stations of the Cross. We came back Saturday morning and arranged the Easter flowers and pulled out the gold and white fabrics. You couldn't help but smile. Holy Saturday the girls and I dyed eggs with lovely results.
Sunday Morning Emma arrived before most of the girls even woke up. I had breakfast in the oven. I checked on Rachael via text, she was worried that we sang without her. I told her not to worry. When she arrived, we all sang ''Jesus Christ is Risen Today" and then did the alphabet game- Easter addition. I think this was the first time we did it in the living room instead of all on our bed. It worked really well. With everyone together and masked, the girls looked through their Easter baskets.
Our girls are always so excited to go through their baskets. They are grateful and delighted at the simple little things we pick up for them. The baskets are always modest, nothing fancy or pricey and the girls enjoy it. It isn't about the stuff, it's the little thrills and the treats. I look at them and love how they know how to appreciate the experience. They are beautiful.
We shared our cinnamon rolls, casserole and pineapple with pretty tulips nearby. We got to do a video call with Mom and Dad Kehrman and visit long distance and then we got ready to head to 12:30 Mass and Rachael headed to work. Mass was beautiful and the sensitive noses in our family were grateful that the masks mitigated the normal aversion to incense. After Mass we lounged around, Jim headed into work at Guinness and then we headed over to Joe and Magaly's for Easter dinner outside.
The cousins hadn't been together for months but the little kids got very comfortable very quickly as they hunted for eggs in the big back yard. Johanna said later that she likes Grampa's yard the best because it has the best hiding places. It took the older cousins a little longer to find their grove but soon enough there was bottle flipping and jelly bean in bread tasting. Rachael and Jim both arrived later after work and it was great to see them slide into the conversations and visiting. I am so grateful to have them all here after this year of loss. I am grateful for their health and well-being. I had really missed hanging out with the sisters. What a wonderful group of women I get to be a part of. I am blessed.
Easter Blessings!
