Little Postcards from "Holland": Easter 2013

Holidays are special for every family. Time spent with those we love, often times those we haven't seen in a while, is what makes it special. When you ask people what their favorite holiday is, often times you'll hear them say Christmas or Thanksgiving. But for me, in the last several years, Easter has become my favorite holiday. The most important part of Easter is remembering what Christ did for us on the cross. The sacrifice he made is the greatest gift we could ever be given. I also love Easter because of the newness of spring. All the old fades away, and new birth is beginning. The colors are pretty and the temperatures are usually perfect, with the exception of course of a few odd years where we had freezing rain. Also, it's a great time to gather with family, without the pressures of shopping for everyone.

I don't know exactly how long ago this tradition started, but several years ago, our family began gathering at my parents' house the weekend of Easter. The highlight of the weekend is boiling crawfish and shrimp on Saturday afternoon. We usually have a lot of extended family around on that day. My brother, Jimmie, my dad and Tommy usually man the crawfish pot while the rest of us fill eggs and hide them for the kids. We use loose change and candy to put inside the plastic eggs and the kids nearly kill themselves trying to find them all. Once we think they have all been found, we end up hiding the empty eggs again, just to keep them occupied. The toughest part of it is keeping the kids inside the house where they can't peek while we hide. Sunday brings us all together at church, where every year the Kinder Bible Church choir performs their Easter musical. The choir is led by my mom and my dad is a member as well. After church, we scurry home to finish putting together lunch, which is always one of dad's world famous roast. The type of roast is different all the time, but without fail, it is always delicious. Mom sets a beautiful table, and we all squeeze around it and enjoy each other's company along with the delicious food. But before everyone gets undressed, we take turns in front of the fireplace taking family pictures. There are pictures of the individual families, the grandkids together and then the whole group. It's usually a rush to get them all taken before someone has enough and goes to change.

This year was much the same, except we ended up not hiding the eggs. There were fewer people there this year and only a couple of kids. They were pretty occupied helping with the crawfish and playing in the yard, and the adults just didn't get around to it. But we still really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect and we sat out on the patio all day, enjoying the sunshine and the conversations. It was very relaxing and I loved every minute of it. John enjoyed just being outside all day. He is an outdoorsy boy, so it was a treat for him to be able to sit outside all day without it being too hot or cold and without the sun beating down on us. Sunday, we went to church and the choir did a great job. We came home and took a few pictures, not as many as normal, and then we threw the rest of lunch together. And instead of setting a pretty table and squeezing around it, we decided to keep it as simple as possible. We served lunch on paper plates and then all went out to the outdoor kitchen and sat around the table in there. I kind of liked bucking tradition, but the most important thing was that we were all together. Jason couldn't make it home this year and we missed him.

We drove home in a pouring rainstorm yesterday. Tommy hates driving in the rain and I'm pretty sure that is the slowest he has ever driven between Kinder and Katy in his entire life. What typically takes us 3 hours, took us nearly 4. We were all miserable and couldn't wait to get out of the car. And our trip ended just like every other road trip. We pulled into the driveway and John started giggling. I guess he is so happy to get out of the car and not be strapped into a seat that he can't help but express his pure delight. This time he started getting excited as soon as we turned onto Fry Rd, 2.5 miles from our house.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the weekend.