Easter has been truly magnificent! One huge difference with Easter here in comparison to Australia is there are no public holidays. But one beautiful aspect that I love, is that the new life meaning of Easter really exists with the start of Spring. Everywhere you go, blossom is out, twigs on trees are sprouting – it just feels so right!
Thankfully, at my work we do get Good Friday off. I used this day to set about doing a stack of housework and packing all our stuff for the trip to Australia. I made beautiful salmon patties and salad – which were welcome due to fasting for the day and Good Friday came and went – with no Royal Childrens Hospital Appeal but I did follow it from here! 🙂
On Saturday morning Bill got what could simply be described as the worst haircut of the century – so you can imagine my animated reaction knowing that a week out of our party and where there are going to be a stack of photos taken, Bill’s locks had been trimmed and parted to resemble Adolf Hitler’s hair. It was HORRIFIC. Luckily Bill got to work and saved the day. He won’t be revisiting that new local barber again!
Over Easter weekend, I also watched the Harp In The South mini-series. I am on a bit of a Ruth Park hit at the moment, having just watched Playing Beatie Bow as well. I will now go back and read all of these again as well as Poor Mans Orange. I want to try and pick up a copy of Missus when I am in Australia too. I did all our packing and we feel ready to get to Australia now.
On Sunday, I woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had got our change of address card and visited us! Horray!
I had this little basket on my bedside table, with little marshmallow chicklets (I had never seen these before I came to the US – but they are everywhere at Eastertime!) and underneath were special little egg-looking jelly beans and then underneath those were some little chocolate speckled Robin’s eggs!! The Easter Bunny had spent so much time putting this together.
Here is the basket –
The little chicklets –
A closer look at the nest of eggs –
On Bill’s bedside table he got his favourite Cadbury creme eggs and a Lindt Bunny Rabbit. Mysteriously one of the creme eggs had already disappeared by the time I took this photo!
We didn’t get to sleep until 2am on the Saturday evening and we had to be up at 8am because we were heading back to Chelsea to attend our old parish for Easter Sunday.
I was dressed somewhat more casual that Bill but it is great getting back into a lighter and brighter colours for spring!
Here I am in my new LL Bean jacket –
Bill and I –
Bill looking dapper –
The Church of St Vincent de Paul in Chelsea is one of the most beautiful churches and yet, is in danger of being closed down. And seriously, on some Sundays I think we would be lucky to get about 30 people to the English mass. The thing that makes St Vincent’s special is its history in catering for the French speaking community in New York – the 11.30am mass is entirely in French. Even Edith Piaf got married there! If you want more information on St. Vincent’s or the fate of the church itself, here are some links.
View photos of the Church of St Vincent de Paul. And also here.
A great review of the church here with links about the possible closure.
Sermon Review of St. Vincent’s – this says it all.
Fr Murray also produces a great Homily of the Day podcast.
Both he and Father Messier’s sermons are amazing and thoughtful – I just had to give them a shout out. If you are in Manhattan, it is really worth checking out.
One of the difficult things about moving was wondering what our new church would be like. We have lucked out – Queen of All Saints includes many of the things that we liked at St Vincent’s but we are still getting used to it with it being a large and active church with full choir – the whole lot. But it is only a block away from the new apartment but we will be making sure that once in a while, we will pop into St Vincent’s!
As expected, the Mass was beautiful and very well attended. After Mass we went to our old we-are-too-hungry-to-go-anywhere-else diner, the Malibu Diner for brunch. I couldn’t contain myself any longer. After 46 days without pasta it was time for spaghetti and meatballs at 11.30am. The last thing one would normally order from a diner would be a pasta dish but seriously, the meatballs weren’t bad!
After a quickstop by Home Depot we wanted to get up to JC Penney and Macy’s – little did we know, they were both closed. So we got back on the train and headed back home.
This was me before I was moaning about not checking whether the stores were open or not –
There were still plenty of tourists around –
A three hour nap ended up occurring (oops!) and after a feast of macaroni and cheese for dinner we settled in to watch the Yankees Vs Red Sox opening game. I am quite over the pasta now and am looking forward to a plate full of vegetables tonight!