Easter 2011

Easter was great. I always look forward to celebrating my Lord's victory over death and His gift of eternal salvation for me.

I have wonderful childhood memories of egg hunting at my Grandmas, searching out the special golden egg and eating lots of chocolate. My mom would dress me in bonnets and gloves and white patent leather shoes. Relatives would gather for a much anticipated Easter lunch. There is an air of excitement and reverence that surrounds my memories of this holiday.

Celebrating Easter on this side of the mountains with no family is challenging for me to conjure up the same anticipation, but I think we are getting better every year.

The forecaster said Saturday would be nice and we could not count on the weather for Sunday, so we had our outdoor egg hunts a day early. This year I thought it would be prudent to avoid as much sugar as possible and hide eggs sans candy. I thought they wouldn't even care...boy was I wrong! There was great disappointment upon discovering the plastic eggs held no candy treasure. But they humored me and hunted anyway.

Sunday upon threat and bribery they all wore the nice Easter clothes I picked out for them without too much complaining. They looked so cute. When we arrived home Steve dropped me off and took the kids to pick up the mail so I could hide the Easter "baskets". I set out m&m trails for them to follow to their baskets.

We did dozens more egg hunts, this time with candy. When dad and I refused to hide anymore eggs Aiden and Nolen took turns hiding them for each other.

More than anything want the kids to be able to stand in awe each Easter as we remember the great price paid for our sins. Aiden thanks God each night in his prayers for sending His son to die on the cross so we can live in heaven. This is the best Easter gift I could get.