Easter This Year

It seems I have said of many recent holidays, "I'm not doing quite what I've done in past years, but I've settled on something (for now) that is enough." And that holds true again.
Easter is my favorite holy-day. I love what it means - to me and to the world. I love to spend Holy Week steeped in meditation and tradition and to cap it off with a joyous and raucous Easter Sunday. But this year...
We got back from our visit to Indiana on Saturday night. We had such a busy week and hadn't even been home - and Chris' birthday is Easter Sunday this year too. So, in spite of being super-tired, I stayed up late last night and made Chris a birthday cake and got breakfast in order while Chris stayed up late and set the table with my grandma's china. We didn't have elaborate Easter baskets, we didn't dye eggs - we didn't do lots of things.
This morning dawned and my heart was tired. I felt guilty for not having put in the time with God I wanted to. I felt unprepared.
However, we had a lovely breakfast (it's an annual tradition - how could I let that slide?) of blackberry buttermilk biscuits and blackberries in cream served on beautiful dishes.


Chris and I greeted church-goers at the door and shook hands and basked in the warm feeling of connecting to a community of fellow believers. We're starting to fit in where we are and it's really nice.
I made a really yummy coconut birthday cake for my honey.

We celebrated so much with our family, not just the Resurrection and Chris' birthday but my grandma's good news too - she does not have to have any chemo or radiation following her surgery!




I also didn't get pictures of us all dressed up for Easter (that is nobody's fault but my own) or the dress I made for Emma.
Sigh.
Oh well.
Life begins again with a vengeance tomorrow. I need a bit more sleep before I can feel truly ready, I think. I'm taking some medicine so my back will stop barking at me and I think I'll have a little more of that cake for supper.
Yeah.
That should do the trick.