Great Silence

In Eastern Orthodoxy, the day before Pascha is known as "The Day of Great Silence."

Well, you do the best you can.  This morning we took the kids to church, and then Jeremy took Natasha to an Easter egg hunt while Zoia and I walked to the store in the glorious sunshine (is spring finally here??) to buy last-minute groceries and some flowers.   Natasha had no trouble figuring out what she was supposed to do - the only difficulty was in keeping her from getting all the eggs before anyone else had a chance.

Tonight we will get the kids up and head to the midnight service at the church located conveniently across the street.  Then we'll come home and break the Lenten fast with some kulich, paska, meat and cheese.  (From this stash, which came home from the grocery store with me last weekend ... plus some more meat and cheese I bought today at the store, and a 9-pound ham that is sitting in the fridge).

I used half the cream cheese to make the paskha (a yummy, yummy cheesecake-like spread), which is currently in the fridge looking like this:

I made Jeremy dye some eggs to get him in the mood.  I know, he doesn't look that enthused.  I don't get it.

Then tomorrow afternoon, we will have friends over to celebrate Pascha and Jeremy's birthday.  This is what the table looks like so far.  Now I have to stop procrastinating and get back in the kitchen!