"He is risen."

I was awoken by little footsteps on Easter morning and only opened my eyes enough to see that the first number on the clock was a 6. I told the little face that was two inches from my own that she knew that she was supposed to wait until "seven-zero-zero" to wake up Mommy and Daddy. She said, "But Mommy it IS seven-zero-zero." I looked again and, what do you know, there must have been a 59 following that 6 I had seen because it was exactly 7 am. So we're groggy and sleepy and unwilling to wake up because I had stayed up too late the night before knitting reversible egg/birds for the Easter baskets (photo at right--cute, yes?), but I said to her, "Jelly Bean, He is risen." And she said right away, "He is risen indeed." How sweet.

I love Easter. It used to be hands down my favorite holiday and even now it still might be. Easter really is the most important Christian holiday. You know how people go around saying endlessly, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" at Christmas? Well, Easter is the reason for the whole religion! Except that that doesn't rhyme... Anyway, I love that Easter is so filled with joy. Joy for our risen Savior, joy for the beginning of spring, joy for chocolate. Where I grew up in California there were fruit trees everywhere, even in the suburbs, and Easter always fell during peak blossom season. It was just beautiful and warm every year, and if I had had children when I lived there I could have dressed them in adorable little sundresses, maybe even with little hats, and taken them out to hunt for eggs on lush green lawns...but now I live in Colorado.

Spring is not beautiful and warm. In fact, I contend that we don't even have spring here. We just have a few muddy, windy days to break up the time between huge, wet, sloppy snowstorms. I have to look for sweaters to cover those cute little dresses if I can muster the spirit to even buy them in the first place. And we are usually hunting for eggs in the living room while sleety snow falls outside the windows. This year, however, it was at least a little bit sunny. It was still windy and freezing but at least we managed to spend ten or fifteen minutes outside watching the kids hunt for eggs.

OK, enough complaining. Easter 2010 really was a lovely day over all. I was awakened to the aforementioned affirmation of my 4-year-old's faith, and then we went down to watch the girls open their Easter baskets. They were delighted, of course, and it was practically like Christmas morning because two different sets of grandparents had sent presents. After church and nap, our friends came over for dinner. The kids, undaunted by the arctic winds, were adorable hunting for eggs, and we had a delicious meal with good friends. I had forgotten to make the custard pie that my husband wanted, so he and I just up and made it after we put the kids to bed. We ate it straight out of the oven when it was still too hot to even taste, but it was wonderful. Oh, and by the way, I offered little pieces of custard pie to the girls after lunch the next day thinking that they would be ecstatic about this unexpected dessert windfall. Jelly Bean said, "Mommy, I don't like this quiche," and Sweet Pea fed hers to the dog.