Easter Revisited

I’m a bit behind schedule posting this week. I had hoped to share some of our Easter activities earlier in the week but I have been struggling to get my scanner to cooperate with me. My daughter left her camera here Easter evening – quite by accident. What’s a mom and grandma to do when a camera filled with wonderful pictures of the grandbabies doing all kinds of magical things just happens to be left with her for a few days? She ‘pirates’ the pictures, of course! Well, I have such sweet photos printed out but my scanner doesn’t seem to want to recognize something in my computer. So, until I can figure this out and share the cute pictures I’ll share those I took and tell you about our day.

Sunday morning my sweetheart and I headed out early to pick up my dear little mother. We drove south a few miles to a care center where I serve as chaplain to lead an Easter Sunday Morning Service for the residents there. We had such a good time singing together and rejoicing in the Resurrection of our Savior. My sweetheart shared a short devotional message. Before we left we spent time visiting and praying with those who were in attendance. It was the highlight of our day, for sure.

Once home again we quickly changed our clothes and checked the turkey that had been cooking on the Traeger grill during our absence. And we added a ham next to it. Soon our family began to arrive and it wasn’t long before our little house was filled with love and laughter and such fun. Each family brought food to make a wonderful meal to enjoy together. But it wasn’t long before my grandkids began to ask, ‘When can we go in the hot tub’? You see, I had told each family to bring suits and towels if they wanted to relax and enjoy time in our hot tub. No need to ask twice – the kids were ready! I took a few pictures of our four oldest grandchildren enjoying the water – and each other – but I didn’t realize I didn’t take any pictures after one more grandson joined them. The photos I ‘pirated’ are so cute. Mr. H., our youngest grandson (nineteen months old) met and fell in love with our little Joey, the puppy. It was love at first sight and Mr. H. followed Joey wherever he went. I will have to share those pictures later when my scanner decides to cooperate with me.

The afternoon was spent in relaxed conversation and the joy of a family together – my sweetheart, my dear mother, our son, daughter-in-law and their three boys, our daughter and her three children, my cousin and her husband and me. A lot of people in my small house. We seem to have a problem. Our grandchildren are growing but our house is not! Don’t you think someone could invent elastic walls that would stretch as the need arises? Or, could we build walls with slide-outs? The kind found in RV’s.

In addition to our Resurrection Day celebration we celebrated the life of my sweet father who has been with Jesus for a bit more than six years. This year his birthday was on Easter. He would have been eighty six. We remembered how he loved to have his birthday on Easter Sunday each time it happened that way. The last time was his seventy-fifth birthday and he shed many tears of gratitude to his Savior for giving him life. Most of all for the new spiritual life he had found in Christ so many years before. We reminisced and remembered and laughed as we talked about our memories of Dad. And, in honor of him, I made a banana cream pie – his favorite!

Sometime during the afternoon our daughter snuggled down in the recliner with my puppy and together they enjoyed a Sunday afternoon nap. (She doesn’t usually look in on my blog so maybe she won’t see this!)

I’ve been told our grandchildren are asking when they come back again. Not to see us – they want to play in the hot tub! Such is life when grandparents have a fun ‘toy’!

No matter how many people were crowded into our little house, the important thing was that we were all together. Together having fun, enjoying each other and just resting in the love we share.