Buona Pasqua!

Yesterday morning Amanda and woke up bright and early (aka 6am) to exchange Easter eggs. Here in Italy, Easter baskets aren't really the thing...instead, they buy giant chocolate Easter eggs that come with surprises in the center, like a small toy or something. (Remember getting super excited about the toy in the cereal box? Same idea.) :) After eating some chocolate (shh...don't tell), we got ourselves ready for church and started off for the Vatican with our friend Rachel. This was the line to get into St. Peter's...two hours before Mass started!


We figured we would need tickets to get in, and sure enough, we got to the front and realized we did. So we decided to just head to the front of the square and stake out a good spot to stand. Turns out you didn't need tickets to get into the square...some sweet nuns gave us one ticket, but the Caribenieri didn't even bother checking the ticket. We were actually able to get pretty close - we were as close as you could get without having a seat. It was a long time to stand, but Mass was really nice, and it was just so amazing to be there for Easter!




After Mass, we had some friends come over for Easter dinner. Amanda, Jen, and I had so much fun preparing and cooking dinner (thanks to all of our moms for all the cooking and hostessing tips through the years!), and we were so happy to have Rachel, Carey, and Carey's parents celebrate with us. One thing I have learned while being abroad is that you can find family wherever you find a body of believers...it was such a blessing to celebrate Easter with my family in Christ since I could not be with my family at home! It was definitely a relaxing day and a wonderful Easter. Of course, now we'll also be eating mashed potatoes til we leave Rome...



I hope you all had an absolutely blessed Easter!

Ciao for now!