Monday, April 2, 2018

Rural Adjustments


We had to get dressed up on Saturday night for the Easter Vigil Mass at church*, during which A. was baptized and confirmed. These sacraments take place during the service and required the whole family to be processing down the center aisle and very much on display. So I thought I should probably make the boys wear actual shoes. As opposed to their snow boots, that is, which is what they usually wear to church this time of year.

Everyone else wears boots to church, too. It's kind of a necessity when there's three feet of snow on the ground.

Anyway.

The boots are fine normally, but they are awfully loud. Those three boys stomping their way up the aisle sound like an invading army. Not exactly the solemn procession the priest was envisioning, I'm pretty sure.

Getting from our car into the church isn't a problem, as there are cleared sidewalks in the village. Getting from our house to the car, however? That's 30 feet of mud, ice, and snow. In other words, shoe-destroying territory.

For that reason, A. put on his muck boots and carried each boy out to the car individually when we left. He left his muck boots on and changed into his dress shoes when we got to church. And I wore my snow boots until we got in the car at home, at which point I changed into high heels. Because traversing the path to the car in high heels would be even stupider than doing it in regular shoes.

It was a very nice service, though, and we all looked pretty good. No mud anywhere.

The only photo I have of most of the family was taken by eight-year-old Cubby in a dim house past the baby's bedtime. Which is why it looks like this:


Pretty much her mood during the entire two-hour service.

I hate to leave you with that image, though, so let's end with this one, instead:


Much better.

* This is a two-hour (or longer) church service that starts after dark so the service can begin in a dark church with an open fire in it. The fire is contained in a metal basin, but still. Open fire. It was a real challenge with four little kids, but was definitely a neat experience. It was the most concrete example I've ever seen of the way Christianity borrowed rituals from more-ancient religions.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting for me to learn about the Easter Vigil Mass. I had no idea as I attend a Lutheran church. (Although, the Lutheran religion is closest to the Catholic religion.)

Were there others being baptized & confirmed, or just A.?

Poppy's outfit is adorable, very formal in black & white!!!!
Linda

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Linda: Nope, it was just A. I was raised Catholic, and the kids have all been baptized already (in the Catholic church, babies are baptized soon after birth and confirmation is at about 14 years old). The Easter Vigil mass is the traditional time to welcome adult converts into the church. Poppy's "formal outfit" is a pair of pajamas. They are pretty fancy, though. Good enough for church way after her bedtime, anyway. :-)

Anonymous said...

Poppy looks so cute!!

Anonymous said...

Good to see a photo with Poppy smiling! Here lately she has just looked overwhelmed by brothers. Congratulations to A. Mary in MN

Anonymous said...

Great to see you in a photo! Your mass sounds beautiful - I would love to go to one with an open fire - that's the first time I've heard of that! I've been to an open air mass in France (that was brill - kind of rustic and simple like I guess it should be). Are you all Catholic or a split family like us (it makes things complicated at Easter!). You really do get a ton of snow don't you - blimey!! BTW I tried responding to your comments on my blog via 'reply' on my phone only to realise (today) I was replying to a 'noreply' email - it didn't appear on my site - and I'm guessing nothing came back to you by email? THANK YOU so much for your venison recipe - I am trying it tomorrow and I am going to post on it on Wednesday - I hope I do your recipe justice as it sounds delicious. HAPPY EASTER! Jx

tu mere said...

Bet Cubby really liked his photographer job. As the saying goes, "Practice makes perfect" or not. Get to see Poppy without the red forehead, or maybe it just didn't show up in the photo. Who would have even considered sound when deciding on shoes!

Anonymous said...

I did the venison! Delish! If you send me your email address I will email you a photo - might ask for some further tips on cooking times though, think I mucked that up a but - theeuropafox@gmail.com.