When Santa Claus visited in December, he accidentally left a few things behind, so we decided to save those items for a later event. They came in handy for Easter. Scotty's mom brought us a bag of candy and some eggs for the kids, so with all of that, we felt like we had plenty of things to help out the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny came and sprinkled the bag of candy around the house, hid the eggs, and hid the gifts
Someone left a scattering of candy and eggs on our front lawn (as well as many other lawns in our neighborhood) so that was a fun surprise! (and it kills me not knowing who it was. We have our theories, of course, but no hard evidence).
Easter flowers from my friend, Annette
For breakfast we made Ham, Egg, & Cheese Wafflewiches. They were really good, but not worth the work (the recipe makes them out to be "easy" but they were pretty time consuming. Blogs lie).
The kids spent a while digging through their candy and playing with toys. We decided to do church a little later than we usually do, so I spent my morning doing some personal study, and watching a Methodist Easter service. Scotty and Nicky watched a documentary about Yellowstone on Disney+ (Nicky was exposed to the mating rituals of bison and wolves, and he watched a bison give birth).
We got dressed and ready for church with Frozen II playing in the background. Some of those songs just hit me to the core right now. We started our Easter church around 11:00. Scotty's dad and step-mom gave us an Easter creche, so we put it out and talked about all of the figures and the roles they played in the last days of Christ's life. In talking about Thomas, I realized that I have Jesus FOMO. So many thoughts on this, but I will save them for another time. The quick version: my heart breaks for Thomas; that he wasn't there with the other apostles when Christ came to them. I need to study his experience in more depth.
Easter creche - as placed by the kids
Eva's primary teacher made us a laminated Easter story, so we also used that. We sang "Jesus Has Risen" from the Children's Songbook and tried "Before I Take the Sacrament" (which was new to us) (and it was rough). Scotty blessed the sacrament and Nicky passed it to each of us. Then we talked a little about some questions the kids had from the scriptures. Nicky and Daisy have asked a lot of questions lately that have led to some fun discussions. This has been one of the greatest blessings of teaching the gospel at home.
After church, we made lunch (nothing fancy, just leftovers and stuff that needed to be used up in the fridge and pantry). Scotty and I went and sat in the backyard for a few hours. Yes, hours. The kids came in and out of the house at will, the sun came and went so we were warm and cold and warm and cold, and the wind blew every now and then and made our tree rain blossoms on our heads. Both of us have red, sun-burned faces now.
Easter lily in our window
Scotty's dad and step-mom stopped by to bring the kids a treat, then we went up to Scotty's mom's house for a while. We stayed outside in the backyard but were able to visit for a while. I broke up several fights between the kids on the trampoline, and Eva and Zoe both fell asleep for a while, which is highly unusual.
After we came home, I made Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for dinner. At this point, we weren't sure how it could possible still be Sunday. We read scriptures as a family, and then the kids watched a movie downstairs while Scotty and I watched The Fighting Preacher upstairs.
Easter cake my mom made for us
Finally, we put everyone to bed and retired for the night.
Even though we are social distancing, we still had a lot of wonderful involvement in our Easter celebration from family and friends (as you can see from some of the photos I shared in this post). I love how everyone is creatively reaching out and trying to remain connected.
Easter was memorable. And quiet. And long. And beautiful. And a little boring. But still nice. Very nice.
This was a very memorable Easter for sure but I’m with you. I hope it’s the o my quarantine Easter I ever have.
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