RoaminCatholic: Canonizations and Cake!

domenica, 5 giugno 2016

Buon compleanno, Kelsey! It has certainly been quite the birthday for Kelsey and was our third of four days in a row spent at the Vatican (we'll be back again for class tomorrow).

We got up pretty early to get to the canonization of St. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary and St. Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad. You can read yesterday's post for a brief explanation of them or look them up online for more info, because they're super cool! Also, as we were getting ready and making breakfast, Kelsey decided to turn Nutella into a verb, so I think we should try to spread the word Nutellaed to use more frequently.

We arrived at the Vatican ten minutes before the doors opened at 7:30, which was three hours before the canonization mass actually started. There were already some people in line, including a bunch of Polish people there for the canonization of St. Stanislaus, who was from Poland. Also, while we were waiting to get through security, we saw a Franciscan sister with a baseball cap over her veil and Kelsey had a quite a burst of excitement (as if she isn't already excited enough with each Franciscan spotting).

Once we got into St. Peter's Square, we were thrilled to get a great spot in the fifth row! By the time we looked back at the end of mass, the square was very full (I read somewhere that it holds roughly 80,000 people), so we were very thankful to have found such good seats!

Waiting in line, bright and early!

Few people here yet...

We tried to take a picture to celebrate our fifth row seats, but were blinded by the sun instead

Okay, we don't look like we're in pain this time, so that's good!

Once we got to our seats, we had a lot of time to wait, but fortunately we ended up talking to a few seminarians that were sitting next to us while we waited. It turns out that they were from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, the order that St. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary founded, so they were so excited to have their founder canonized!! We were also surrounded by a lot of Polish people, many of whom were wearing traditional Polish outfits for the canonization, so that was cool to see. We did feel like the odd ones out as we didn't come for a particular saint, but rather stopped by since we just happened to be in Rome.

Us with one of the seminarians, John Paul, after the mass

While waiting for mass, it was really cool talking with John Paul, comparing life in the U.S. and Europe. If I'm recalling it correctly, I believe he said he was born in Poland, raised in France, and is back in Poland for seminary. It was interesting hearing what stereotypes Europeans have of Americans as he was trying to figure out what was and was not true of what he had heard. He also shared his discernment story with us, which was very nice too! The seminarians also gave us nice little white bandanas with a picture of St. Stanislaus to help keep the sun off of the backs of our heads. Then we fit in with all of the Polish people that had them!

So many people in St. Peter's Square after the canonization!!

Once we got back to our apartment, we baked a cake for Kelsey's birthday! It was quite the adventure, but fortunately, we have it well recorded in pictures! Please brace yourselves for many photos and enjoy!

Hmm, the directions are in Italian...

At least we know it is cake!

Aww, she looks so cute!

Yum! Coconut included!

So excited!

Almost ready to put it in!

Can you believe she's actually 21?

I'm thinking 2 seems more appropriate

Ooh! Cake! Let's bake it!

Yup. Definitely two years old.

We've been sharing everything, but there's a point where you have to draw the line.

Okay, she is much more thorough than I am!

Well she's in the same spot I left her before my shower...

We finally have cake!!!

After our birthday baking, we made chicken and baked potatoes for Kelsey's birthday dinner, complete with a small glass of wine for her 21st. Quote of the day from Kelsey: "It's good, just not the alcohol. If they didn't put alcohol in it, it'd be great!" After dinner, we went out for gelato with a couple of our roommates, then returned home for the birthday pineapple that she has been talking about for the past two weeks. She tried lighting part of the top on fire as a candle, but it didn't work since it was too green. I jokingly suggested that earlier this week, then quickly regretted it when I saw how quickly her face lit up when she decided she had to try it!