Catching Up... The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls on December 12, just a few days after St. Juan Diego's feast day on the 9th.  We typically combine the two in celebrating, since Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego.  At home on the 12th, I decided to throw together some Mexican wedding cookies and some Mexican hot chocolate, as the apparitions happened in what is now Mexico.

The Mexican wedding cookies are quite simple: flour, butter, nuts, and after they cool, they are rolled in powdered sugar.  Caroline and Cecilia helped to roll the dough into balls before baking them.

I don't think I made a single cookie and only guided them on how much dough to use so they'd all be roughly the same size.

We made a double batch - see the other tins stacked behind the one that is open?  We took the extras to an Our Lady of Guadalupe party with friends on the weekend!

I forgot to take photos of the food... our friends know a Hispanic family who make and sell authentic Mexican food that is so, so yummy!  We had tamales and another type of food I can't remember the name of... it was wrapped in banana leaves!  The kids also watched the CCC video of Juan Diego in the playroom and then headed down to the garage to paint their own tilmas after lunch!

Some of our older children helped the younger ones. :)

Here's Caroline's finished tilma.

Dessert time - tres leche cake and Mexican wedding cookies!  We were excited that the weather held out and the kids could play outside a lot.  I don't think I will fare so well this weekend, as overcast, cold weather is predicted on the day of the Epiphany party I'm hosting for our group of Catholic homeschool families... we're going to have 25 children ages baby through 18/19 and nine adults inside my slightly-less-than-2,000 square foot home!

This isn't everyone, but here are some of the kids wearing their tilmas.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

Saint Juan Diego, Pray for Us!