Happy Feast of All Saints!

Now this is a feast I can sink my teeth into!

Now that the vigil is over, thank God (Oh!  Did I say that out loud?)...

Um. Sorry, folks.  I know it gets the collective dander up to openly admit that we're Halloween Scrooges over here at our house, but honestly, now...  It's not like we opt out of Christmas, ya know.

We love holidays, love the annual march through the calendar of the Liturgical Year.  We thoroughly enjoy the traditions surrounding the change of the seasons -- and have no problem with secular holidays that have wholesome meaning.  We're all over Groundhog Day, do up the hearts and flowers big-time at St. Valentine's,  wave our flags on the Fourth of July, and carve pumpkins in October -- while drinking pumpkin spice latte.

But -- and we truly don't think it makes us better than anyone else -- we just don't like Halloween as it's commonly celebrated. We do not trick or treat or do the spooky-ooky thing on the day before All Saints' Day.  And I don't apologize for this.  (Sorry, but I don't  ;0)   I do feel bad if others think this choice for our family is a judgment on them, though.  And I totally bristle when folks act like they feel sorry for our children -- as if they're missing out on something.  (Sheesh! Puh-lease.)  We just prefer to whoop it up on the Feast of All Saints.

Michelle -- not here -- this is her
on All Saints' Day her last year in
high school.
(I just wanted to see her face....)

Though we attended an All Hallow's Eve Shindig hosted by our parish last night (you haven't lived until you've seen St. John the Baptist play balloon volleyball with St. Jerome!) and everyone had a wonderful time, today is the real feast day, the real celebration!  Yesterday we slaved over costumes and worried over Saints' speeches.  Today, we take the day off!  Mass at 8 a.m. for the Holy Day of Obligation (or, uh, maybe we'll make it to the 6 p.m. Mass if we can't answer the bell...), then a day, hopefully, of rest and relaxation and just hangin' out together, with Dan home for the weekend. We haven't figured out yet what kind of goodies we'll make to literally feast on, but you can be sure there'll be something baked.  Games played, movies watched.  Feet propped up.

Then back to work Saturday "Packing, Planning, and Pitching" (as in "throwing junk away") to get ready for our move in three weeks.

 We hope everyone had a safe and fun Boo-Day yesterday, but its being a mere prelude to today's real feast, I'll skip the Halloween greetings (because it makes no sense, for instance to say "Happy Christmas Eve! Or Happy Day Before Easter!)...  But we would like to wish everyone, far and near, a

Very Happy Feast of All Saints!  

 

May the prayers of all those who see the Face of our Father in Heaven cascade down upon us all!

,

Let the party begin!

*  If anyone is really interested on our opinion and reasons behind our opting-out-of-Halloween decision, you can read all about it (ad nauseum) here.  I think I've written a post about it just about every year since I first started blogging -- that was way back in 2006-2007....  Not like its a cause or anything.  Just one of those things that you can't help but need to address if you're one of very few families not  posting pictures of your kids' pumpkins full of candy today.  :0)

* Stay tuned for the Feast of All Souls tomorrow! (Hopefully I'll get that posted, or reposted, or something...)

 

* And, yeah, this is a re-make of last year's post. Did it seem familiar to anyone? I've been a little too busy (and, admittedly Zombie-Brained) lately to be original.  Maybe when we get settled in Nevada I'll get back into a writing groove again. You'll find out along with me! (If there's anyone out there reading this....  Are you out there?  Is anyone out there? Hello?)