And now back to our regulalry scheduled program: Brian was tired so I got up with the kids in the morning (we won't go into that particular moment), but I will not complain (too much) as it gave me a chance to play with them and catch up on my cartoon watching. When B finally roused himself from bed he herded the kids into the kitchen so that they could "surprise" me in the living room with the Mother's day gifts they had been working on all week at school. They had made beautiful little tea-light holders out of baby food jars, but the best gift was the look on their faces as they presented these treasures to me - so full of pride and joy, positively beaming as I carefully unwrapped each one, oohing and aahing all the while. As I took the candles out of the gift bags each child pointed out its special features:
Cate's candle is pink, because that is her favorite, and it has purple flowers because that is her favorite, and she put them on herself. And the ribbon is pink only because that is her favorite. (I am guessing there will be a test later....) "Now you be Max mommy and I will be Ruby and I will give you your candle but no touching."
Ava's candle is green, like Tinkerbell and frogs, and it has a rainbow heart and a green heart and only green and purple ribbons because those are her favorite colors and not pink, and it has m-o-m which is spelling for mom, and do you like it mommy?
Jack's candle is rainbow, but not brown, and it has two hearts and three letters, m and o and m, and three ribbons, purple and pink and green and I love you mommy.
I took the kids to church while Brian stayed home to make brunch; thankfully Mimi and my brothers met us there because as we were walking toward the Sunday School classrooms I thought "I bet there is no Sunday School today" and Lo, the Lord heard me and I was right. So the kids were in church the whole time, and they actually did remarkably well considering that I did not have any toys or candy on me to distract them. Cate amused herself by unpacking and repacking my purse 100 times, Ava scribbled on the service program, and Jack contented himself with walking up and down the pew on the kneelers. At the very end of the service Father Mark shared that the older Sunday School classes had been making "Home Blessing Kits" for all the parish families, and he asked all the children to come up to the altar to help him bless the water (thus making it HOLY. See how that works?). So they all tromped up to the front of the church and stood on the dias, right hands raised in the general direction of the water and mumbled purposefully. Amen! I can feel the salvation washing over me.....
The best part was coming home and watching the kids run around with the Home Blessing Kit (a small bottle of drinking water and a piece of palm frond left over from Palm Sunday. We are very high tech in the Episcopal Church.) sprinkling various objects they denoted worthy of blessing. The dogs got pretty damp, the cats not so much (they were quicker), mom and dad got doused multiple times, and of course Mimi and the Guncles. Thomas was sprinkled liberally, as was Tinkerbell, Lion, Monkey, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Cate's 1,000,000 small plastic animals, their couches, their beds, and the train table. So now we know what really matters.
The second best part of coming home was the scrumptilicious brunch that Brian had prepared - eggs Benedict, asparagus with Hollandaise, fresh fruit, a lots of strong, hot coffee. A veritable feast, and we all enjoyed it immensely.
That evening we had dinner with our friends Jenna and Don at Ruth's Chris in Irvine to celebrate our shared anniversaries - our 6th and their 7th. If you have never been to Ruth's Chris I highly recommend it. The steak is great, but more importantly everything else is sublime. I had several pomegranate martinis and have to say they were the best I have had yet (trust me on this; I have done my fair share of taste testing in this area). All their side dishes were great, particularly the sweet potato casserole, which is not so much a side dish as a sneaky way of having dessert WITH your meal. And the vinaigrette on my Salad Caprese was something I would happily drink as a beverage if given the opportunity.
All in all, a very good day. Cheers to all you other mothers out there - one day is not enough!
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