Happy Easter

Easter is a big holiday in our family, not quite Christmas-big, but pretty close. We always went to Good Friday service, which is my favorite church service. I love the solemnity of it and how it completes the whole Easter story. The church was always draped in black and at the end of service the lights would slowly dim, the pastor would read about the tomb closing, and we'd all walk out in silence. On Easter morning the church would be covered in white and flowers and everything would be so bright and celebratory.

When we woke up that morning (well really, when I woke up, because I always woke up first and then roused my brother and sister) we'd call to mom and dad and let them know we were coming down. We each had an Easter basket that my dad would hide somewhere downstairs. Looking back, its kind of incredible that it took us more than 5 minutes to find them because the baskets were not exactly small, they were full of stuff, there were only 3 rooms they could be in, and we've lived in the same house since 1988- and yet they always took a while to find- my dad is tricky, and I think we all wanted the fun to last longer. Each year we got a swim suit, a few summer tops, flip flops, candy, and my brother got a squirt gun. We'd put on our Easter dresses, go to church, get doughnuts on the way home, and then have a big Easter breakfast. In the afternoon we'd go to an Easter pool party (this is Texas) at someone's house in our Care Group. (A Care Group is a group of families from our church, the adults had Bible study ever other week and we all had holiday parties and camping trips together- we're all still really close.) We splashed, ate, egg hunted, and played. It was always such a wonderful weekend. I talked to my parents this morning and my sister and brother (now 21 and 18) still hunted for their hidden Easter baskets before church :)

Last year, my first Easter away from home, I spent the whole day in the library working on our 1L appellate brief. Today, JP and I made a gourmet breakfast (I consider it gourmet because we used all our pans, but it was pretty simple fare), and then I went to the library. Next year, I'm planning to put bunny ears on our son, go to church, have a mini Easter basket hunt, take lots of pictures, and Not go to the library!