Lebkuchen: Emilie's First Communion

For the past seven month, Emilie has been studying with me to make her First Reconciliation and First Communion at our English-language parish here in Germany.

A group of 13 kids made their First Reconciliation a few months ago in a special little service. The kids sat in the pews of the church with their parents as Father gave them a little talk reminding them of the meaning of the sacrament and pointing out how each child would sit in a chair across from him behind the altar for their confession. We could see them, but not be able to hear them as music would be playing from a boom box and would drown out their voices. When he finished his introduction, he said, "Alright then, who's going to go first?" All the kids looked at each other, with a look of "Not me!" when Emilie piped up, "I'll go," and walked confidently up to the altar. She was not as nervous as Micaela and Emilie had been because she was allowed to bring a script with her in case she got nervous and forgot what she was supposed to say. She finished quickly and on the way home said, "It was fine, but Mom! He forgot the last line of the script, where he was supposed to say 'Go in the peace of Christ.'" "That's not a big deal," I said. "Well," Emilie continued, "I told him he forgot the last line." "Ah, Emilie," I said after I finished coughing as a result of gasping too suddenly, "You need to learn that delicate art of quitting while you're ahead."

For her First Communion, we gave Em's straight hair a bit of a curl.

The bell tower of St. Mary's -- the English-speaking Catholic parish of Liederbach. We can see the bell tower and hear the bells from our house.

We are the sister parish of St. Leonhard's International English-Speaking Catholic Parish in Frankfurt. If you speak English, live in the Frankfurt area and want to attend an English Catholic Mass, you'll go to one of these two churches. We have parishioners from the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines, and many other countries around the world.

The kids had some professional portraits taken outside before Mass.

We had time to take a few pictures in the sanctuary before Mass. Note the hard, bare wood kneelers that we kneel on every Sunday. It took a few Sundays to figure out the right angle to place your knees on the wood.

We met up with the rest of the family before Mass. Becca was having a bad hair day.

There was no photography during the Mass, except by some professional photographers and we haven't gotten their photos yet. Here are the kids after Mass, which went very well.

The Church gave each child a cross from Jerusalem and....

....a certificate.

Delicious American-style cake from the U.S. Commissary in Wiesbaden.

Chatting with Father Stephen

Oh, yes. We had some drama this morning. As Emilie was getting dressed, I unwrapped her brand new white stockings only to discover that they were stocking-leggings and as a result only came down to the ankle. Panic ensued. You see, stores are closed on Sundays, so we were going to need to figure something out and fast. Frantically looking through Micaela's old clothes did not result in us finding any white stockings. What to do?

The only thing I could come up with was pinning the bottom of the leggings together since I didn't have enough time to sew them. I had bought leggings that were about two sizes too big because that was all they had at the store and so they were long enough to do pin.

Back home with Guinness

On the bridge over the Liederbach

With Mom and Dad. Do you see David's blue cast? It turns out he didn't need surgery after all on his broken wrist, but he does need to wear a regular hard cast for a month.