A snapshot (or twenty) of the weekend

Although last week was definitely not the best ever,

The weekend BEFORE it was pretty good.
I went home 

as my sister had just returned from Africa,
my big bro in New England flew down 

AND my younger brother in college was in town too

so of course,

I wasn't going to miss out on sharing a bathroom with 3 people all the fun!

And my. Was it Fun.

 We goofed around. 

Papou made strange comments about how magnificent the neighbors' tree is 

{he has Alzheimer's.

We don't understand how his brain works these days.

But we love him all the same.

he has a heart of gold

and the sweetest of souls}

A typical Dad expression.

 and a typical Dad behavior.

On Sunday, we went to church, of course.

 Here are the boys

looking ever so dapper

My Mom directs the choir at St Mark's

so she is not present

and my other brother had to go back to school

and my sister was camera crabby shy. 

sigh. 

Saint Mark's is a fairly young parish.

My Grandfather was one of the founding members in 1980. 

When I was born, 

we went to church in what would later become the hall. 

In 1996ish

the church was built

and we've been slowly 

{but surely}

finishing it ever since.

When I was was little,

I asked my parents when the church would be complete.

They told me probably by the time I was ready to get married.

Impressively, 

they weren't too far off.

Most of the icons have {finally!} been paid for

and every time I come home,

some new and beautiful addition has been painted or installed.

This weekend it was these mosaics:

Are they not the loveliest things you have ever seen?

I especially like that they quote the scripture in English,

seeing as we are a fairly dilute and mixed parish,

it just seems appropriate. 

Here's a few shots of the rest of the church.

Father Mark is a wonderful priest,

and the presbyter behind him was actually one of the first priests at St Mark's (: 

Of course after liturgy 

we had to stuff our faces with breakfast foods.

And there is only one place

in our lovely hometown 

that I always try to get to when I'm home: 

We've  been going for years

When we were little, 

we went most Sundays

with all of our cousins 

{and there are a lot of them!}

The manager would give us chocolate and raspberry cigar pastries 

as papou had helped is son get into medical school

{or something like that.}

 Papou always gets waffles with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and honey
as you can see,
it's easy to keep him happy.
It's the simple things in life... :)

It was the perfect ending 

to a much needed relaxing weekend.