Easter Vigil

On Saturday night I went to Easter Vigil at Holy Cross/IHM for the first time. The three oldest Brady Girls were getting confirmed. Before Mass started, I was sitting toward the back when their youngest sister walked past me and asked, "Would you like to sit with us?"

"Sure," I said. "Is there room?" There was, although the Brady relatives filled up nearly three pews. Two of the girls had aunts serving as sponsors, so the aunts were there with their husbands and kids. I think one of them had seven kids, though it was hard to tell the brothers and sisters from the cousins. The youngest of the bunch was probably about a year old, maybe a little less, and he got passed around among all the kids and a few of the grownups. I even got a turn holding him for a few minutes. Easter Vigil is tough on kids--this one went for two-and-a-half hours--so the innumerable Brady cousins got a little squirrelly.

The confirmation came in the middle and that gave everyone a chance to move around to get a better view. They always say "don't take pictures during Mass, wait until afterwards" but people always ignore them, and this night was no exception. Then we all took even more pictures after it was over.

Afterwards, the family invited me back to their house for a party. Mrs. Brady is a great cook--she bakes bread and sells it around the block every so often. I always buy some. On Saturday night they had tamales and two kinds of atole--the regular kind (kind of chocolatey) and atole blanco--it's a thick white drink without much flavor. I like the regular kind, also known as champurrado, better.

The Bradys downstairs didn't come to church, but they were all there for the party, and one of them even brought one of the chickens upstairs to show her cousins. Oldest Brady Boy told me he doesn't know where he's going to high school yet. That worries me a little. I'll have to check in and find out what is going on--if we need to do a last-minute push to get him somewhere or what. I thought the Nobles would have given out answers by now, so I'm worried he may be on a waiting list.