Holy Saturday and Visitors from the East

It's a Polish tradition to have the food for your Easter dinner blessed in Church on Holy Saturday.  It's a tradition taken very seriously in the Polish community with 3 blessings done at different times, and two of the blessings are done in Polish.  Last year my husband and I went to a Polish language blessing by mistake and giggled like kids because we didn't understand a word.  This year the only giggling was from me as I tried to turn the ringer off on my phone and accidentally made the phone ring.  I hid under the pew until I stopped laughing and my face turned back to it's natural color and not bright red from embarrassment.  It's a beautiful tradition, with prayers for each food and it's significance to Easter.  It's a way for me to honor my heritage and of course remember my Buscia and wonderful Mom.  I use a new basket, but still have the basket that my Buscia used each year.  It is too fragile to carry the weight of the food, but I cherish it just the same.

 Our basket had a butter lamb, colored eggs, Polish sausage, homemade bread and some treats.

The decorations are always lovely at our Church.  These banners were made by my talented artist friend and Guild Sister Shirley.

 I asked my husband to skip into Church with the basket.  The things he puts up with...he's a Saint!

My dear friend Mary bakes and delivers me a beautiful Lamb cake every year.  She is the sweetest, and took pity on me because of my inability of baking a lamb with ears, face or behind.  She'll never know what this act of kindness means to me each year, though I try to tell her.  She is just one of those special people that are a real blessing, and I am so grateful for her loving gift of "Mary's Little Lamb(cake)" each Easter.

To top off our Holy Saturday, we welcomed visitors from the East, my dear daughter Kristen and her Doug and Doug's family.  Doug's Mom and Dad and brother drove into Chicago and included a visit to our home for coffee and cake on Saturday after dinner with Kristen and Doug.  They also stayed to enjoy our Easter Brunch, and that my friends,  is the next post!