Christos voskres!

Well, it rained last night, so I missed the Resurrection service, too. I must admit that was a mixed curse, since, as a morning person, the midnight services has always been especially rough on me. But the sheer beauty and joy of it has always carried me through. Not this year, though.

On the other hand, I woke up a lot during the night. And every time I woke up, I'd think, "Christ is risen!" smile, and go back to sleep. Now it's 5:00 a.m. (5-ish, anyway), and I'm up for the day.

Spent yesterday baking two kulichi, that Russian Easter bread that is full of all the cholesterol we've been denying ourselves for seven weeks, all the butter and eggs (for cream and cheese, there's the pascha, which also has butter in it). The one kulich is for the Agape Vespers my parish in Saco is having; everyone was invited to bring something special from their paschal tradition, and since the parish is now about 70% Greek and 30% convert, there's at least a chance we'll get something other than roast lamb and baklava. Like, well, pascha and kulich.

The second kulich is something I was asked to do at the beginning of the semester. Every Monday afternoon, my Russian class holds something called "chaipitye," or tea-drinking, which is supposed to be a chance for us to sample Russian food and talk about Russian topics (in English, thankfully!). I was asked if I could provide something paschal for this meal. I e-mailed my one Russian prof yesterday as it was baking, and this morning, her comment: "My mouth is watering just reading this. I cannot wait to taste everything." The irony is, this particular professor is Jewish -- non-practicing, at that -- and my other professor is an out-and-out communist. I should see if I can find an icon of the Resurrection online, and print out and bring that along with a couple of my other icons. After all, this is an Orthodox feast. (I am so bad.)

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!! Best news I've had all year.