Easter Celebration

Today is Easter and we have another beautiful day outside. The boys awoke early and we headed down for their easter basket surprise and breakfast. After eating, Dustin hid eggs in our family room and the boys really enjoyed running/crawling around to find them. We then headed up to Skype with the grandparents and had the wonderful treat of being able to skype with our neice and nephew, who happened to be at one of the grandparent's houses. (We had already had the treat of skyping with our other nephew a week or so ago).

After skyping, Danny and I headed down stairs and worked on coloring eggs. I had found a coloring kit that is just Q-tips filled with paint and it was fairly easy for Danny to use. I let Josh play with one of the plastic eggs, as paint and him are not yet a good combination. Danny enjoyed painting eggs and even created one like his Pops always makes--a mud egg using every color that you have.

After painting we had a nice meal. I was unable to find ham here (our traditional Easter meal), so I settled on pork roast. It turned out pretty well. (We are still struggling to figure out what setting to put the one dial that regulates the fan and the other dial that sets the temperature on to have things turn out correctly and at the correct time). After our meal the kids headed up for quick naps.

At about 2pm we headed off to church. We decided to take the alternative route we used one other time to see if it is any faster. We were quite pleased to arrive a little over an hour later (better than the two hours or more that the other route provides). As we were early we stopped into the Starbucks that is across the street from the church and grabbed a drink. We then headed over to the church to hang out in the courtyard since all the chairs at Starbucks were filled. Danny was really excited to go to class today (he actually is every Sunday, but this was especially true today because they had told the kids that they would go easter egg hunting). While they were in class, they did an easter craft and easter egg hunting and then also received a little bag with treats and toys inside. It was really nice and Danny of course was thrilled, except for the seaweed candy that we promptly got rid of after tasting--not very tasty.

Our service was also wonderful. They had the choir sing a Cantata and then the congregation did a few songs with a short sermon from the Pastor. The funniest part of the service was everyone trying to clap along with the songs. Everyone was clapping at a different time (this is why I choose to just sing and not clap along, because I know I cannot do both at the same time). The other part that was funny although also very sweet and touching is that they had different people do solos from the choir. When it was one man's turn, he was so passionate, but he was completely off key--off key to the point of being a little painful, yet he was so obviously passionate about what he was singing, it was still quite moving.

Overall it was an extremely moving service. First I have to explain how many people were in attendance. We had five to six people per pew, people sitting on extra chairs next to the pews, people standing in the back, and then all the way out of the church, with people even standing outside the church doors. Everyone was singing and quite literally it was an all out celebration. I just kept looking around the church at different people's faces and everyone was so excited and so genuinely happy to be there, with everyone from all over the world represented. It just makes me wonder what sacrafices they all must have made to not only be there, but to be a follwer of Christ. It was to say the least quite magical (mixed with the funny moments of singing and clapping that I mentioned earlier).

The service was also nice because we sat in front of a great couple from the US (actually Springfield, IL) that have a young son named Ethan. We had a nice visit and they gave us there card and said we should do lunch some time. Her mother was in visiting for her second time already, and it was nice to chat with someone from the Midwest that was also about our age.

Overall, our Easter was a wonderful celebration and we pray that you had an equally joyous day celebrating that Jesus is Alive!