Easter Change Up..

Today is Easter.  Rick is upstairs preparing for church, with beautiful Easter songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir playing. I am not worried about the trivial things Easter can bring.  Preparing a dinner, setting tables, making sure the bathrooms are clean, filling last minute eggs, these are the things I have done on Easter Sunday in the past.  I would go to bed at night and try to reflect on the things we talked about at church and the Savior, and fall to sleep in 2 minutes because of shear exhaustion.  Waking up the next day to the realization... I had not focused on the Savior.  I had missed the purpose of Easter!

This year I decided to change things up. Everyone got Friday off of work. So we decided to do our annual get together and egg hunt then.  Doing this would leave Saturday for yard work (Yes, Houston is in full lawn and yard maintenance season), and Sunday for true reflection.  It was a success!  Our family here in Houston, and two of my sisters girls and their families came together for some fun, CHAOS!

We all met at the theater to watch "The Croods" it was a cute movie and the spontaneous giggles and out bursts of laughter made it worth every penny.  Then it was off to Valley Ranch, our favorite BBQ in North Houston. Eight of the Eleven children really just wanted to play in the play area, which we sit really close to on purpose.  Some would come and sit and eat then run off to play again.  Everyone got along great and we checked dinner off the list. No cooking,  no clean-up!

We ended up at our house. I had raided Walmart hours before and purchased bubbles, jump ropes, balls, and had the kids bring their bikes.  We live in a  quiet culdesac, where the kids can run wild. That is exactly what they did, while their oldest cousin Bailey hid eggs in the back yard.  Over a hundred and twenty of them filled with candy and money. After running off their extra energy, we called them back to the gate and let them loose to hunt eggs.  After a successful hunt and pictures, we enjoyed talking and  eating Loo's delicious coconut Easter bunny cake.

Best thing about it was... that today, I can reflect on Jesus Christ and that he lives! Happy Easter! Change ups are good!