Feast of Mary

We had a lovely Marian feast celebration last night. Well, sort of.  Mary Beth and I planned a celebration with meaning--I'm not sure how many people actually got it. Nicholas was literally bouncing off the walls (might have had something to do with the large, empty bag of red and green mint M & Ms).  Patrick was more concerned about who's feast day was more celebrated, St. Patrick's or Mary the Mother of God's.  (Mary Beth replied that "Everyone is blogging about my name day--way more than yours."  She seemed to think that the traffic in the blogosphere settled the matter.  She doesn't know that there is a St. Patrick's Fair in the planning.) The big boys inquired about whether the roses were in honor of the Rose Bowl. "Nice touch, Mom."  Anyway, we girls persevered with our vision.

This year, I'm going to use pillar candles for liturgical color on my table.  I found some blue ones at the party store upon Alice's suggestion.  While I was there, I also found some molds to make roses and hearts (The Rose of Jesse and the Immaculate Heart) to put on the cupcakes for the tower. I had planned to do the gumdrop roses in Alice's Jesse Tea, but couldn't find red and green gumdrops after Christmas. So, these molded candies seemed like a good substitute--except that  Mary Beth would really rather do everything Alice's way as much as possible, so she persuaded her dad to find some gumdrops.  He did.  We made both gumdrop roses and candy roses and hearts. Not sure the boys got the significance of any of it, anyway...

But Mary Beth and Katie and I were so pleased with the table that we captured our simple elegance with a photo before the men descended. They did seem to like the steak.  Nicholas complained about the little sticks on his roasted potatoes and couldn't have cared less that rosemary was a Marian herb. The sparkling cider was a big hit. The entire evening made me wonder if the Blessed Mother was ever lonely without a daughter in the house?