Catholic Again: That Time I Spent $10 on a Grasshopper

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do to celebrate a certain feast day. For instance, St George's day we do pretty good at. Food? Check. Coloring pages? Check. Library books? Check. Funny YouTube video of St George and Dragon that will give my daughter nightmares for the following week? Well, um... yeah. Check. (Sorry about that one honey!)

And then there are days I think I have figured out, but when I go to execute... it turns out to be more than anticipated. The nativity of St John the Baptist (June 24) was just such a day.

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I actually began thinking about this day waaay back in May. (In a departure from my normal 5-6 day lead time.)

Proof.

But as you can see, I didn't get very far in my thought process. So I did some research...

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What I really love about this particular day is its cosmic connection to the calendar. We know from Luke 1:36 that when Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have Jesus, Elizabeth was already 6 months pregnant with John. So that would make John and Jesus' birthday roughly 6 months apart too. Both John's and Jesus' birthday are celebrated shortly after the summer and winter solstices, respectively. Thus after Jesus' birthday, the days get progressively longer and after John's birthday, the days get progressively shorter. A very real and cosmic way of depicting how John said, "He must increase, and I must decrease." (John 3:30) I find this super cool. What I don't find too cool (or even comfortable) was John's diet and wardrobe: he lived in the wilderness eating locusts and honey, and wearing a shirt made of camel hair. (Classy.) This little cartoon makes it all look really cute though:

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But back to the story. Up until a week before JTB's day I was still thinking I would make some kind of cake with honey in the shape of a grasshopper... which the more I thought about it, the more I feared it would end up on CakeWrecks. So I ditched that idea in favor of something that I wouldn't have to make myself... hmm.... honey... what dessert uses honey? Ooo! I know! Baklava! And I'll decorate them with those plastic grasshoppers you can find everywhere. So with that plan solidly cemented in place a full 7 days in advance (go me) - I went about my week.

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Come Thursday (the day before the big day), I figured it was time to go out and get that baklava and grasshoppers that you can easily just pick up anywhere that sells... you know... baklava and grasshoppers. Shoot. Where did I think I could just do that? I didn't have any luck at Target. So I headed to Michael's thinking I could at least get a few grasshoppers there. We scoured the whole store looking for the green little things, with E constantly asking, "Mommy? Where are the grasshoppers? Is this a grasshopper? Mommy? Is this a grasshopper? Mommy? Where are they?? OOHH!! Look! Dory! and NEMO!!" The Little Dude meanwhile was growing more impatient with every minute he was strapped into the cart - so when I finally found a tube that had plastic bugs in it - including one measly little grasshopper - I decided that was good enough and I threw it in the cart and headed up to the checkout to pay for it.

$10.86

Ten freakin' eighty-six. For a grasshopper. Well, for a grasshopper and 13 other plastic bugs, that now I will find strewn all over the house and will forget that they're not real, so when I see them I will scream and freak out until I see they're plastic and then I'll feel silly and will silently curse myself for thinking that buying this tube of craptabulous stuff for $11 was the good and right thing to do. For the kids. *sigh* Well baklava shouldn't be too hard to find, right? One failed trip to a store, and 3 phone calls later... yeah, sure. Not hard at all! (Bangs head on table.)

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However, John the Baptist's birthday was celebrated and even enjoyed! In the morning the wee girl and I colored these pages of JTB both with, and without, locusts. The wee girl is also on a bit of a Lego kick these days, and wouldn't you know it? I found a retelling of the story of John the Baptist on YouTube - done with Lego!

She didn't like it. (Of course.)

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And dinner didn't go too badly either, if you ignore the fact that I fried the microwave. (Pro tip: insert food before turning on microwave.) I even did a little decorating!