Holy Week and Pascha 2016

I have only one complaint about our new parish. It has no light. Like I said before it's located in an industrial strip mall. There is one window above the doors to the nave. And. That. Is. It. Hmpf!! So....I could NOT get any good photos. I tried. I didn't want to use a flash and since the services were mostly at night and with candle light...it was impossible to get a good photo. 

But, I want to show what the parish looks like so here goes...with bad photos. 

On Holy Friday the kids and I attended....and Cam worked. You can see the congregation returning to the nave after our procession outside. As we enter we pass under the Epitaphios. 

On Saturday morning the kids and I headed to our old parish to enjoy my favorite service of the year. It's so beautiful!! It was heartwarming to see some of our friends and hug around the room. I teared up several times. It felt good to be in a familiar space. 

And the lighting at that parish is amazing! Windows! 

Saturday night was Pascha service....which started at 11:30 pm. Yes, that is late! Oh! This year we all laid down around 6:30 for a nap. I slept until almost 10:00...and it was really hard to wake up and get going. Poor George was so sleepy and not able to rally. 

And...hmmmm....lighting in my house at night....not so great either. 

Once in place at church Tuba was so excited. He loves Pascha! The service starts with the priest lighting each person's candle. We sing, "Come receive the light..." and it is beautiful! 

Then we head outside to process around the church...or in our case around the parking median and back in. Cam took this photo of the empty nave. 

Tuba doesn't like to go outside and poor George was snoozing.

He slept the entire service. 

While Tuba smiled and sang and rocked. 

Here's a photo that shows our priest and into the altar. You can see Mr. P inside the door to the acolyte area. He is the only one of us that didn't nap. Tired boy!

I snapped this pic of the bay leaves. I love it that they were left on the floor from the Saturday AM service. 

After the liturgy we went to the priest's house to celebrate and break the fast. The kids were so thrilled! 2:00 AM and having a blast!

On Sunday we had our feast at the new property our parish purchased. It was the first time we got to see the inside of the building. It's a horse arena that has classrooms, restroom and a kitchen. I got to have a tour from our priest and I can now visualize what it will be some day. There will be a temporary church built inside once the permits are approved. It will be much larger than the current space. It will only take a few months to enclose the space and be ready to go. THEN...as a parish we will have to raise the funds for the eventual building. That could take 10 years. Ugh! I will be working on the virtue of patience. But, in the interim the space will be big enough and it will be beautiful. 

Now back to the feast celebration. The weather was sunny and warm. Bonus! The Arena is located on 3 acres so lots of outdoor room to run and play. There was a bouncy house for the kids. Our kids loved it and bounced much of the day away. The food was delicious! We were thrilled to be back eating meat after the fast. 

The best part of the celebration was the games. They had musical chairs for kids and then adults. What a hoot! Then we did an egg toss....which Cam and Moses won. Then a squirt gun fight. What fun!! Kids and adults had a blast squirting each other. I haven't laughed so hard in forever. I highly recommend having a squirt gun fight with your family. 

No pictures from the feast. I was literally too busy having fun!