Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. We celebrated early with family and the kids did a big egg hunt at Grandma Patti's house. They LOVED that there were quarters in their eggs (and I loved that there wasn't candy). They each ended up with $6 which, especially to a 3 and 5 year old, was very exciting. Brad keeps his bag of quarters in his pocket and has sweetly offered to buy us groceries, dinner, admission to a museum...if only $6 could go such a long way.

On Easter Sunday we enjoyed a lovely morning at church. James is on vacation and it was so nice that he was able to join us. Savanna sang beautifully in the choir, Ben gave his first talk, and Bradley had a "Primary Spotlight."

Excuse me while I digress from Easter, but this is too funny not to share. The primary is our church's youth group for ages 3-11 years old. The "Primary Spotlight" is where a child is chosen and a list of clues is read off by one of the primary leaders about that child, and the class has to guess who they are describing. For example, one of the questions is "Where were you born?." Brad was born in Northridge, CA, so the leader began the spotlight with "This person was born in Northridge, CA." Brad's hand immediately went up and he yelled, "Jesus!" The leader chuckled (James and I, who were standing in the back, practically fell over we were laughing so hard!), and then she proceeded with her clues. "This person's favorite food is cashews." The room was quiet. "This person's favorite color is blue." Still nothing. "This person has a pet named Big Ralph." Again, Brad's hand shot up and he yelled, "Hey, I have a dog named Big Ralph!" Again, the leader chuckled, and James and I were now dying with laughter. Still, even after his outburst, no one could guess who it was! Even with Ben muttering repeatedly "My brodda has a Big Ralph. My brodda has a Big Ralph." the leader had to read four or so more clues before someone yelled out, "Bradley!" Oh, I'm glad James was able to be there for that.

Okay, back to Easter. After a great morning at church, we went home and had a lovely dinner, a lesson on Christ and his resurrection, and, of course, another Easter egg hunt. We ended our day with our family reading. We just started reading together as a family. We try to read scriptures daily (try being the operative word), but we've also started reading short novels. The boys sat quietly for 45 minutes while James read them a book with absolutely no pictures. I was pretty impressed! I figured it was a fluke, but we've done that two more nights since and they love it.

Overall, it was a spiritual and relaxing day. I personally would like to do away with most of the commercial hoop-la, especially around the religious holidays. The baskets and eggs are fun, and while I still do them, I try to down play them as the main event. And it's not just the religious aspect. Am I the only one who is a bit annoyed at how many holidays there are on the calendar where everyone is "expected" to do or buy something? Why to we have to buy cards and candies on Valentine's Day, eggs and baskets on Easter, gifts on Christmas, etc. etc.? Can't we be spontaneous anymore? Can't we give gifts when we want to, not because we feel we have to? Shouldn't we be showing the people in our lives that we care every day, not just on a few scattered holidays? Then there's all the Hallmark-created holidays like grandparent's day and secretary day and love your tree-hugging neighbor day...oh, don't get me started on those!

Maybe I should label this post, my tangent post. :) At any rate, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter (sincerely, I do).