'Tis the season for snow and saints days, I'd say.
Last week, we celebrated both St. Brigid Day...
... and Candlemas as a family...
... between shoveling and playing in the the feet and feet of snow we have had piling up.
This week, if weather cooperates, we'll be hosting a small Our Lady of Lourdes celebration with one other family at our home, and, then, heading to a friend's home to honor St. Valentine with a group of folks from our local Catholic home education network.
However, because we're in the midst of a prolonged set of winter snowstorms and just about everything is thrown off by the need to shovel...
... and the desire to go out to play in the snow....
... I am keeping plans for this week's celebrations simple:
An Easy Prep Our Lady of Lourdes Lunch "Tea"
It looks like our Our Lady of Lourdes liturgical tea menu will include:
- hot coconut-maple milk with cinnamon, which is fairly white, to remind us of Our Lady's purity (and will keep us warm if we've been out in the cold!)
- water, to remind us of the spring
- GFCF pretzel stick firewood to remind us of the firewood St. Bernadette was collecting when the apparition of Our Lady appeared to her
- blueberries to remind us of Our Lady, since one of her traditional colors is blue (and we like plenty of appealing produce power in our spreads!)
- sliced apple-pear, apple or pears, which are also white, reminding us of Our Lady's Purity (and keeping that produce power up!)
- cashews, which are whitish - again the purity theme - and are a much-loved protein for my kids
- blueish juice wigglers, for Our Lady's blue (and my children's delight, because they LOVE juice wigglers!)
- crepes, for France, where Our Lady of Lourdes appeared
- chocolate and/or cheese fondue with various fruits, vegetables and bread to dip in it, again for France (and because the other Mom is fabulous and suggested she could bring this fun dish!)
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Activities may include:
- prayers to Our Lady.
- coloring or painting on printables of Our Lady of Lourdes from Catholic Playground
- reading Our Lady of Lourdes
- watching Bernadette - The Princess of Lourdes
- revisiting some of our favorite experiments with water from Amazing Science, Volume 1
Celebrating St. Valentine Twice
At the end of the week, we'll celebrate St. Valentine on our own with a family breakfast or luncheon tea, much likes those we have had in the past.
As a family, we'll revisit some of our favorite Valentine read alouds:
How will you be celebrating saints (and snow, if you're buried, too!) this week?
