A peaceful and happy tired

I was a bit anxious for Holy Week as the plan was for me to stay with an elderly lady from Church for the entire week, and for my husband to commute up every evening after work to attend the services with me, spend the night, and leave early in the morning to drive the 80 miles back for his daily 8:00 class.

My husband has taught me there is much to do during Holy Week. Besides the daily and sometimes multiple services per day there is the cleaning the house, the church, dying Red eggs on Thursday, baking Easter cookies and bread, and preparing for the Pascha feast. How was all this to get done if I wasn’t home all week and also how in the world would I get the 80 grams of required pregnancy protein per day when everyone around me would be strictly fasting?

Letting go and letting others help you can be more difficult than being in control but needless to say, I had a great week. It was fun just getting to know the lady I stayed with and helping her prepare for Pascha. I learned how to make Arabic cookies (kaak) and a new kind of Greek Easter Bread as well as many other useful kitchen and household information. Plus, she is a native to St. Paul and she showed me around parts of this grand city, budding with springtime, that we had yet to explore. There is nothing like spending a large chunk of time, day in and day out, with someone to help forge a relationship.

I love celebrating Pascha with my dear husband.

2006 (dating in Los Angeles): Greek dancing, music and friends at his apartment followed by a trip to the ocean and me informing him that I wanted to take him up on his offer and visit him in Greece that summer.
2007 (Melbourne, Australia): Early morning Pascha feast with Greek friends followed by another Pascha feast with other Greek friends with lamb roasting on the spit.
2008 (Los Angeles): Early morning Greek feast with friends followed the next day by St. Michael’s unbeatable luncheon, St. Sophia’s Pascha picnic and dancing, and an evening of ice cream and cheese at the home of the nearby OCA parish Priest with good friends.
2009 (St. Paul Minnesota): Early morning coffee hour at church followed the next day with a feast of lamb, etc. with a lovely group of about 30 people. We skipped the second Sunday party. A lady from our parish invited the whole church over to her home. She rented a tent and was going to roast 2 lambs and a goat. We stuck to the “smaller” party :).

The Sunday party was a really nice mix of cultures. It was the kind of thing you hope will happen more in Orthodox-American homes across this country. We sang Christ is Risen in English, Greek and Arabic as we had all three together.

And now we can enjoy the Greek (tsoureki) and Cypriot bread (flionas) I made the week before Holy Week! How fun.