3 Turkeys: Celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany

Here we are 7 days into the new year and I'm only a day late with our first celebration! January 6 was the Feast of the Epiphany. Better late than never, right? Right.

Years ago when my kids were very young and I was trying to figure out how to build our little domestic church, I read a book called The Year and Our Children- Planning the Family Activities for the Church Year by Mary Reed Newland. Published in 1956, it was a gift to my mom when she was pregnant with me. It must have been a baby shower gift. This little book is a treasure trove of great ideas for bringing the Church and her many feast days to life!

An oldie but a goodie!

Well done, little Miss Julie. This was a perfect gift!

In this great book, I discovered many wonderful celebrations including the one we did today. Ever since the kids were little, we have tried to help them understand the feast day by putting on a little Epiphany play taken directly from the book. The Casting is simple: Kevin is King Herod, 3 of the kids are the Three Kings, Emma is Mary and I am the Scribe. The kids dress up in blankets for capes and crowns made of cereal boxes covered in foil and bedazzled to each King's taste. Appropriately attired, they travel through the house singing The First Nowell or We Three Kings, carrying gifts we held back from Christmas for the purpose. They approach King Herod and ask where they might find the newborn King of the Jews. Herod calls for the Scribe to bring him the scrolls and he reads Micah 5:2

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans[b] of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”

Herod "innocently" asks the Kings to go, pay homage, and come back to tell him where the Babe is so he can do the same. Sly, Herod. Real sly. The kids sing their way to our Mary, pay homage to the Baby, go to sleep to be visited by an angel who thwarts Herod's evil plans to kill the Baby Jesus- HA!- and they depart to their homelands by another way. Finally they get to unwrap their gifts.

2017

Even though it is fun I wasn't sure if this was a tradition the kids would want to continue into their teens. I asked them this year and they were adamant that the tradition continue. Of course they like getting an extra gift, but I think they enjoy the tradition that spans back to when they were very small. Holding onto a bit of their childhoods as they navigate these adolescent years? I'm here for it!

What's a celebration with out special food? Lame. That's what my kids would say. Well, they'd really say it was "sus". Traditionally, you could make a King Cake. I've done it before, but it wasn't a big hit around here, so this year I made a Tarte Tatin from The Joy of Cooking. I've never made it before, but I just looked up some photos of what it SHOULD have looked like:

Beautiful

And what mine looked like:

Nailed it!

Ice cream makes it all better.

But at least the dinner I made is a new family favorite (to my never-ending delight and surprise), Chicken Tikka Masala from Damn Delicious No pictures. My future as a food blogger is questionable.

One last thing: Don't forget to chalk your doors! It's such an easy way to make your faith more visible to the world. I've been asked several times over the years what it means by people who come to the door. What an nice conversation starter! I could go on, but this blog does such a lovely job, I won't elaborate here.