Easter

We had a really nice Easter. It began on Friday night with our traditional "Jerusalem" dinner where we only eat foods that Jesus would have eaten in his lifetime. The kids really love this meal, except for the fish that always ends up on a plate (although Sam does like the fish)! We enjoyed eating without plates and utensils, although Keyan and I did have some concern over dipping into the same food bowl as a snotty-nosed Elyse!

We went on an "Easter walk" before we went to Conference. We have done this in previous years, but we recently purchased a book with that title that has great pictures of Jesus' last days on the earth. We read the scripture clues and then go off looking for things that represent the wooden cross, the prickly thorns, death, life, darkness...... These things seem to focus our attention on the true meaning of Easter. We don't have an Easter Bunny come to our house, just a mommy and daddy who give a couple of religious books/CD's and hide easter eggs filled with candy ..... I want there to be at least one purely spiritual holiday during the year.

We still got all dressed up even though the only people we saw were the 20 or so at the church watching General Conference! We did have the missionaries over for dinner, so they were able to help us take some family pictures. Thank you, elders! These pictures are so sweet, I need to remember to look at them when I am forced to play referee between the pictured pairs of siblings!

We found out on Easter morning that our adopted "Great Grandma" Mrs. B passed away the previous night. She was the mother of a patient Keyan had several years ago who had passed away from cancer. Keyan really took a liking to Mrs. B, so he started bringing our family over to her house to visit every now and then. Cari, do you remember her? She always called Elyse "Katie" because that was what we were going to name her initially, so that is how Mrs. B always thought of her. Anyhow, it was actually a great time to talk about Mrs. B's dying with the kids, since Easter is all about death and the resurrection. It made Easter just a little more personal for us this year.