All Saints 2019 (in pictures)

This year, our family’s All Saints Day was pretty laid back. The highlight may have been reestablishing our tradition of homemade donuts- not so laid back, but totally worth it!

Halloween

The children donned their long underwear, costumes and then topped it all off with a coat, gloves, and hat. And we were still cold! It was the first year we ended up driving for some portion of our trick-or-treating route.

In case you missed it, here is our Catholic family’s Halloween manifesto.

All Saints’ Day

My kids love and look forward to Holydays because they are a day off of school and our normal schedule. We treat them much as we would a Sunday (which is what we are encouraged to do)!

An All Saints’ Booksale?

We usually try to avoid shopping, but I made an allowance this year for our tiny town’s library book sale. It was a special treat for the kids and we came home with 116 new books for $23.

I think I may have a problem….

Candy Bartering

Christian is still on a low-carb diet as he transitions away from his super strict medical keto diet. The fact that we no longer have to weigh his food by the gram, calculate meals, and that he can now have 30 grams of carbs per meal versus 4 grams has given us so much more freedom.

Of course, he still can’t gorge himself on Halloween candy, so he began bartering candy for money, toys, etc. He is quite the wheeler-dealer!

You can read more of our epilepsy journey here.

All Saints’ Feast Table

What is a Catholic feast day without a bit of feast table decor? You can thank the kids for the arrangement!

All Saints Costumes

And here is probably one of my favorite parts of All Saints (besides the donuts)- saint costumes!

This year we had St. Michael the Archangel, St. Clare of Assisi (a repeat from last year), St. Martin of Tours, and St. Jose Sanchez del Rio.

Soul Cakes (aka awesome-sauce homemade donuts!)

It’s been a couple years since I’ve made homemade donuts because I didn’t want Christian to have to sit out of that tradition. This year, I found a low-carb donut alternative that worked with his new diet and – ALLELUIA!!!- the donuts are back in the liturgical celebration line-up!

The Crispy Creamy Donut recipe we have used with lots of success.

Mass

Of course, this is actually one of my favorite parts of All Saints too! I’m always soooo glad whenever I can get to Mass.

All those years of training our children makes Mass a real joy! I can actually participate and focus with a whole heart!

If you aren’t there yet, go read Reasonable Expectations and Simple Strategies for Mass with Littles. Don’t fall for the “Just-hold-on-it-will-get-better-some-day” mentality.

You CAN go to Mass with children and enjoy it too!

All Saints Party

Our party was postponed until November 5th and only half the crew made it (nasty cold). It’s always a joy to get together with our friends. We let the kids run free and we mom’s were able to have some nice mom chat.

You may also enjoy:

All Saints Costumes DIY (2015)

All Saints Feast Table

Halloween and the Catholic Family

16 Ways to celebrate All Saints