Ready for Our GFCF Our Lady of Guadalupe Tea |
Last Wednesday, we enjoyed a liturgical tea honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Unlike last year, when we celebrated the feast day all throughout the entire day by enjoying sensory activities and a meager, but meaningful tea, this year, we saved most of our observances for the late afternoon and evening, which meant fewer activities, but more feasting.
That is not say we neglected the feast day until dusk. Rather, we began the day by reading and discussing The
Lady of Guadalupe. Then, as we continued with our day's activities, we recalled parts of this story, as well as details from the Holy Heroes Saint Juan Diego Glory Story, which we had listened to this past Monday, and the Talking
Eagle and the Lady of Roses book, which we had read on the Feast of St. Juan Diego, too. We connected and applied ideas from these stories to our lives: Patience. Obedience. Trust. Faith. Miracles. Beauty. They are all there. And with them, so were some opportunities for prayer, connection and learning.
In the late afternoon on Wednesday, the children colored pictures that I had printed out from the links on our Advent Alphabet plan. Then, we decorated the table simply with a table cloth, the kids' coloring, a blue candle and two read alouds.
St. Juan Diego's Tilma: GFCF Tortiallas and Ham Roses |
After that, Jack and Nina helped me roll nitrate/nitrite-free ham into roses with thanks to an idea shared by Alice at Cottage Blessing, I prepared the rest of the meal, we prayed and dug in. On the menu were:
A Mushroom "Cloud" Radiating with Sweet Potato Fries "Light", in Honor of How The Lady Is Depicted as First Appearing to St. Juan Diego in The Lady of Guadalupe |
A Chopped Avocado "Tepeyac Mountain" with a GFCF Mayo "Cloud" radiating with Egg Piece "Light" |
A Spinach and Arugula Mt. Tepeyac with Dried Cranberry Roses |
A Colored Image of Our Lady with Egg "Radiating Light" as the Image on St. Juan's Tilma |
We also had bowls with the rest of the egg and tortilla bits.
The children loved the menu this year, admittedly as much for playing with as for eating.
Luke added stars to his tilma before eating it. |
Nina made a dress for Our Lady. |
And so it was, we enjoyed another Saints Day Liturgical Tea while honoring faith, family and our family food goals. (Okay, maybe not the "economic" part of our food goals, since the nitrate/nitrate-free ham and the special GFCF tortillas are not the least expensive things one could eat!) Not only that, but I now have another way to make stars... Our Advent Alphabet "S" day and Feast of Epiphany Day could be filled with egg stars, summer squash stars, pineapple ring stars and, if I am feeling up to the mess, GFCF sugar cookie stars.
How do you combine faith, family and food to celebrate the Liturgical Year with your little ones?
(If you receive this post via email and cannot see the linky, be sure to actually click over to the blog to read browse the rich catalog of ideas there.)
Your tea time looks just wonderful!!! I'm sure that was some work! I'm not that skilled in the kitchen! I often make cupcakes and add toppers. It's my easy way out I guess! ;-) We all have our special gifts from God! Blessings in this Advent season!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jennifer. I am laughing right now, because I am not super skilled in the kitchen either. Half of that meal was thanks to eggs and kitchen scissors (the rays, starts,tilmas) etc Cupcakes and toppers would be a nice alternative. :)
ReplyDelete