Easter Recap

Easter was really wonderful. I was honestly scared about how this whole day would play out and what kind of mood I would be in when it was all over.

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night. When Jeff took Patches out he accidentally set off the new alarm system (another post on that coming later) which is not a pleasant way to wake up. Fortunately he got it shut off before we got a phone call! We were both up relatively early. The dogs went out, we were able to have a relatively non-rushed morning, and still get to church early.

Sunday school was less inspiring than I had hoped, but it worked and I feel like they learned something. I was really nervous about how I would feel about the Easter service. The one thing I miss about East End is the music. I especially miss Lee and the organ and "He is Exalted" (which I have been singing for about two weeks). But today everyone was in great spirits and while it wasn't the same my heart still soared when we sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today."

My sermon went really well. I think this is probably my favorite sermon I've ever written and I actually wrote it last year for my women's preaching class. Essentially, I told the Easter story from John in the voice of Mary Magdalene. And the major point that I attempted to make was that we have to turn our backs to the places where we expect to see Jesus if we are ever going to have a personal encounter with him. I was a little worried about how it would be received, but everyone seemed to really get into it. Even the kids that normally don't pay any attention! Maybe one of these days I'll share it.

After church I made up a bag of food from our food pantry for the neighbors of a family in the church. Then, Jeff and I got drinks out of the fridge and a goody bag of candy left over from the egg hunt on Saturday. We piled into the car and ate our candy on the way to Remlap. We had Easter dinner with the extended in-laws (there were 20 of us total over the course of the afternoon). I normally don't look forward to Easter because I'm not a huge ham person. But this ham was actually really good! It didn't hurt that we also had macaroni and cheese, strawberry pretzel salad, and cookies (plus a bunch of veggies I don't eat!) The one thing I missed was sweet potatoes! I brought home leftover ham for ham and potato casserole. That adventure will also be coming soon.

After lunch there was lots of sitting, talking, grazing on sweets, and even the hunting of eggs. I'm glad I'm not the only grown up who enjoys doing that! Jeff and David had fun hiding and Barbara and I had fun hunting (even if it was really hot!) We didn't make it home until almost 8:00pm. It was a long day, but a good day. Now all I need is a chocolate bunny...