Easter
John rejoined us very late on Good Friday and then we caravaned together to my brother’s house in the Bay Area late on Holy Saturday. I didn’t really good much in the way of pictures on Easter itself, but we had a lovely day. The kids enjoyed Easter “baskets” (little gift bags of goodies) before Mass. We were able to attend Mass with all of my local family (two siblings and their families) at the lovely St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, where my sister and brother-in-law sing with the St. Ann Choir.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely barbeque party at a local park where the weather was absolutely perfect and the park was filled with other happy families celebrating the great feast. It was wonderful for the kids to get lots of time to run around in the grass – we really hadn’t had a lot of that on the trip.
My sister-in-law made these amazing gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. They’re made with an almond butter base and so they don’t have that weird sharp taste that a lot of gluten-free bakery goods suffer from. They were SO good – I must have eaten 4 or 5 of them!
The picture, in case you’re wondering, is of the house I grew up in. We did a quick drive-by on the way to Easter Mass. It’s a little strange to not be able to visit the house when I go back “home”. In fact, later in the day on Easter, when John and I had to return his rental car (long story), we made a quick visit to Our Lady of Peace Shrine (which we frequented when I was growing up) and there was something about stopping there, and sitting in front of the statue for a few minutes, that made me really feel like I had come home. The statue, by the way, is a 35 foot outdoor statue of Our Lady – makes quite an impression!
Chez VH 