Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and most people are celebrating this week religious or secular reasons or both.  At our home, we understand and are grateful for the significance of the season, but also enjoy the traditions associated with Easter like egg hunts, big dinners, and baskets. 

One of the traditions we started a few years ago was the nighttime egg hunt.  The kids had outgrown hunting eggs in the living room, had moved on to the yard, and then found themselves incredibly bored with the whole experience.  I, being unwilling to just let it go, just found it necessary to up the ante. 

Yes. We hide the eggs, put change in them, and then hand them a flashlight.  Believe me...it is not as easy as it looks.

Letting go is difficult, isn't it?  I briefly visited the home of a family today that has four children...three girls and a boy.  The girls have been going to the ballpark for fourteen or so years watching their brother play.  It was just something that they always did.  Never a lot of thought about it much...and after years and years of being spectators...it pretty  much became a normal part of life.  Today, they watched their brother play his last high school game in the first round of the playoffs.  While a loss is difficult to accept...this was a loss that came out of left field...no pun intended. 

My nighttime egg hunts are my way of keeping the fun that I miss so much from when they were little...alive for a little bit longer.  It also gives them back some of the fun that they profess to have outgrown.  Win/win, yes?

Thought I was kidding?

Counting eggs...five are still AWOL...
Tomorrow morning, we will be headed to the Sunrise Service, and I was pleased to note when I checked that the weather will probably cooperate.  It will be lovely being outside way too early with no regard whatsoever for Easter finery.  I think that is one of the reasons why our family loves it so much.  There are no issues with parking, and some years they've even had Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee for breakfast.  I mean...tomorrow is going to be Sugar Fest 2011...so why not start at 6:00 a.m.?

Speaking of sugar...I have THE cutest Easter cookies made by Elisabeth Epperson of http://www.elisabethssweets.blogspot.com/.  Elisabeth is a high school junior that is incredibly talented in the kitchen...and is beautiful, smart, has a wonderful personality and a heart for the Lord.  The whole package!  I hope you'll check out her blog and follow it or just leave her a message.  It is a fun read and she posts the most incredible photos of what she's working on along with some really cool narrative.  Here's the pictures of what I picked up today. 

Cute, yes?
How about this...

Look at the amazing detail that she puts into her cookies!
Or this...

SOOOO cute!  :)
And one more...

May I add that they taste as awesome as they look...
Tomorrow is Resurrection Day!  It is a time for wonderful sweets...but also the time to realize how sweetly our lives are full of new experiences that bless us.  How sometimes something amazing comes out of something unspeakable.  And that we should have no fear about whatever is in front of us.  After all, the price has been paid.

Try not to eat too much sugar tomorrow...but savor every moment of your time celebrating the Risen Lord...enjoying the day with family or friends...and just being in the moment.  Today is all that we are promised.  Make it sweet.

1 comment:

  1. Easter is always a wonderful day at our house, even with one adult daughter. Since she is still waiting for her family, she is still our child on holidays. And not much can deviate from her norm. There is Easter candy, she only likes one kind. There are a couple of presents, usually practical, and one not so practical. This year Easter sidewalk chalk for us to all three mark up the driveway. (Haven't yet, but will) Easter breakfast (her choice). The most enjoyable is Church together and then Easter lunch, her choice. And a day together, partially just fun, but partially reflecting on what Easter is all about. We had numerous facebook Easter wishes to respond to. And, we shared some of our own. Facebook is incredible that way. Without fb, no one hardly would be able to get Easter wishes to make their rounds. This I like! I loved seeing the scripture, the youtube sharings, the reflections from family. And to realize that I personally have a lot of family that intends to be in Heaven together. That is EASTER!

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