He is risen indeed

Happy Easter! This is my favorite "holiday," because of what it means. The songs in church today were (obviously) resurrection themed, and I always get a little choked up at some of the lines, but today, I was a soggy mess. Without Kleenex. Thankfully, Rob's sleeve was very tear-absorbent. I don't want my life to be defined by the fact that I was widowed so young, but I was widowed SO young. And it profoundly changed the way I see almost everything, so maybe it's a part-way definition of sorts.

Jesus is the reason for the day, but I have hard time visualizing Him. I do not have any difficulty imagining my "hook in Heaven," big Blake. I can picture him just fine, and the promise of today, the promise of eternity and looking forward to seeing him again overwhelms me with emotion almost every time I really get to ponder it. It's not that Jesus isn't enough - He's quite plenty! It's that I have someone else with whom I'm eager to get reacquainted, one whom I have physically touched and known. I think it's one of God's mercies that He gives us frail creatures such touches of anticipation. He knows we cannot truly imagine Him as He is and all that He promises. We CAN imagine those people we love who have gone before.

There's a deep difference in how I celebrate Easter now.

As for our boy, not so much. He declared his belief in the Easter bunny, and while I'm not sure that I ever did (Mom? Care to weigh in?), I fondly remember the way my mom made celebrations special as a child. We'd come upstairs and see the dining room tricked out with crepe paper streamers, balloons, confetti on the table and our Easter baskets, full of goodies. The whole family would greet one another with "He is risen!" and "He is risen indeed!"

I've been pretty last-minute or nonchalant about some celebrations in the past, but I'm trying harder this year. We had three egg hunts (school, friends, home), we made resurrection cookies last night (eaten this morning and tasty), and we enjoyed sourdough pancakes and bacon before church. Happy Easter, everyone. He is risen!

Egg hunt numero uno with his preschool friends. They made the baskets out of milk jugs earlier in the week, we all had a hand to hold in order to troop across the street to the huge yard at the Story Mansion, and the kids were set loose. Some of the eggs were high enough that the teachers or I had to get on tiptoes to get them for kids, and we laughed about the giant man who must have hidden them, then were sternly corrected about the Easter bunny and his size.

Due to the heavy snow we woke up to on Saturday morning, the egg hunt was relocated from the Schuyler back yard to Sara K's first-grade classroom. It was great fun, and everyone did really well. Blake stuck to eggs he had to FIND, while Mason was dutifully and seriously patrolling the floor to snag the ones that were artfully set down all over the place. And with approximately ten dozen candy-stuffed eggs to find... we were done in forty-five seconds flat.

This morning's egg hunt, around the house. No competition, harder-to-find eggs, and MORE candy! In about four hours, he may very well lapse into a sugar coma.

The Easter basket and the "oh, shoot, I don't have a basket and I don't want to go to the garage at this hour" bag. I may have gone overboard, but it was really fun to find things I KNEW they would both love. Like Pop Rocks. HEY OH!!!

See, Mom? I'm getting better at this! Of course, B was mystified at why we'd have streamers and balloons for Easter. I mean, it's no one's BIRTHDAY or anything. And yes, that clock in the background says 12:30. At night. See why I was reluctant to head to the garage for a silly basket?!

We made the best of the snow situation. I had help from Blake, Lizabeth, Jack, Mason, Smith, and Kale. It was fun, even when Matt or Peter (not sure which) pegged me with a snowball. I wish the monster snowman's gaping maw showed up better. Next time: red food coloring. NOM NOM NOM!