I love the feelings that Easter brings....the hope and celebration after the penances of Lent and the Triduum. Easter morning started early at our house. Most of the kids were up at 5am...even earlier than usual. It amazes me how excited the older kids still get at the thought of an egg hunt and Easter basket surprises. I'm glad they're still young at heart no matter how big their bodies are getting!
Easter morning actually went really nicely. The kids had fun and nobody fought! Despite Luke getting into the girls' nailpolish when no one was looking(!!!!), the morning went fairly well.(Hopefully magic eraser will get all the blue polish off the kitchen stool! And the spot on my pants...well, what mom of young kids ever has completely clean pants for more than a few minutes anyway!)
Mass went well despite the sugar intake of the early morning. Even Peter did better than usual knowing that there would be cake after lunch at Grandma's house.(He LOVES Grandma's cake!) The Church was beautiful with all of the flowers and it's just such a happy feeling to be at Mass on Easter morning. The only mishap was when Michael told Peter to sit on the pew after Mass was done while we were waiting for Luke and Jay to light a candle and Peter sat on the piece of cheesecake we had brought for Msgr! He squished it completely flat! Thankfully it did not escape the aluminum foil. Msgr. had a good chuckle when we told him....and we dropped by an unmutilated piece a little later on in the morning.
The day was really nice, spent with Jay's family and then my extended family. Jay's mom in particular always spends a lot of time and puts a lot of thought into putting together really nicely decorated and filled Easter baskets for the kids. Nothing lavish or over the top...but just really nice.
It's the little thoughtful touches that make holidays and family traditions special and memorable! Having the little ones has kept up the magical focus of the holidays and helped me realize how much the older kids still enjoy it and look forward to it! They all looked forward to coloring eggs Saturday night and going to bed a little earlier than usual so that Jay and I could put together the surprises for the next morning. (Actually, I put the surprises together and forced Jay to wake up after falling asleep on the couch to help me!)
Seeing how much fun they had and how happy the older kids were made me glad I had put the extra effort in to think of fun, little things for their baskets instead of just giving them a gift card. I think they felt special and it gives them a sense of strong connection to their family with these happy memories. I truly felt thankful to God for those moments of peace and joy this morning with everyone together, snacking on a little candy and eating hard boiled eggs, just enjoying each others' company. It was one of those "aaah" moments of Angel's singing and everything being right in the world for at least that one moment in time and soaking in the peace and love of just being together. It was the perfect execution of living in the moment and enjoying the moment.....before the reality of normal chaos(like blue nail polish and squished cheesecake) began again! But I guess those are special kinds of memories all their own, too!
