Easter 2012

Yesterday was such a lovely Easter Sunday.  My boys and Jeff went to church with me.  Our sermon and music was so very good.  I got to sing my favorite Easter hymn, Up From the Grave He Arose and my second favorite, He Lives.  I love to sing in church, and I'm totally off key and sound awful.  I don't care, though.  I sing loud in church.  I know my terrible singing sounds beautiful to the Lord.

Jeff and me before church

Ross and me before church

Cam and me before church

After church, Jeff's mom fixed a wonderful Easter lunch.  She doesn't cook very often anymore.  Because she cooked, and I didn't want to miss it, I had to miss my Easter get-together with my cousins and my aunts.  I was disappointed I didn't get to see my extended family, and I wished I could've made the day longer so I could squeeze everything in.  This is Jeff and Ronnie, Peanut and his mom and
dad.  I love this picture.  They all are smiling and so happy.

 
I tried not to eat too much at lunch because I knew we were going to have another get-together with my parents, sisters, and all the kids.  My sisters and my mom are good cooks, and I knew there would be lots of good food.

We had Honey Baked Ham and Honey Baked Turkey, and so many delicious sides.  Crystal makes THE BEST mashed potatoes, so she brought those.  Suz makes THE BEST mac and cheese, so she brought that.  We had several other things, too.

Me and my BFFs.

 Since the weather was so pretty, we ate outside.  It was windy, but then again, every single time I have a party outside, it's windy.

Eli, Ethan and Alayna.

Egg hunting is a tradition that I just can't let go of.  My parents' oldest grandchild is Ross.  He's 23.  Their youngest is Eli.  He's almost 8.  Since I have a hard time letting go of traditions that I love, they still hunt eggs.  Even Ross.  BUT we do it at nighttime.  They use flashlights.  I think they had a lot of fun. We had sooo many eggs, but I went outside this afternoon and didn't find a single one that they missed.

 You can tell from the picture above that it was really dark by the time we got the eggs all hid.  We had two prize eggs.  The first place had $10 and the second place had $5.  Instead of using traditional gold and silver, we put the money in  camouflage eggs.  When you're dealing with kids this old, you've gotta be tricky.  In years past, they would skip over other eggs and look only for the prize ones.  We showed them.

Ross and Missye checking out their loot.

They found the prize eggs.  BOTH of them!

Alicia and Cam checking their loot.

They're not exactly kids anymore, but to me they always will be.  As long as they'll hunt Easter eggs, I'll try and make it as much fun as I can for them. And believe me, when we said that they could go and start hunting, you'd have thought they were all five years old.  THEY LOVED IT!

I love this bunch!

After everyone had left and we had cleaned up, I had to make one last trip to the trash can that we had already taken to the street to be picked up today.  My yard was so quiet that it made me tear up.  To think that just a couple of short hours before that, it had been so full of laughter and fun.  It just made me sad.  I am so thankful for my family!

 I was exhausted when we finally got in bed, but I went to sleep with a big smile in my heart. It was a perfectly lovely Easter Sunday in every way.

Till next time when I'll tell you all about our garden that my sweet Jeff is working on, LLL.