I recently saw a few memes floating around that said something along the lines of, no one is going to want to recap Easter this year or their 2020 (I’m sure many of my blogging friends would disagree with that). While I know these times have been tough, uncertain, and feeling like our normal is farther than we’d like to think, I still have to hold onto hope and plenty of moments we can create that bring joy.
This Easter was a bit a different, as I’m sure it was for all of us, but even with things being different than what we might be used to, Easter wasn’t canceled. The reason we celebrate wasn’t canceled. The new memories we were able to create with our little family weren’t canceled. And you know what? We made the best of it. Dare I even say, it was actually a great Easter.
Of course we missed having all of our loved ones around the table, but there was something about the flow of the day that made it so enjoyable. Maybe it was the no stress of making the house feel perfect, spending hours in the kitchen preparing, and the large mess after that’s usually left to clean up. If there is a way I could incorporate this no stress feeling into every holiday (and still add in my favorite people) then that’s the type of holidays I want to have. Anyone else with me?
Let’s take a look at the day. The boys woke up super early, I’m talking before the sun even came up. I told them they could get dressed and take a peek down the stairs but they had to wait to get into their baskets. I heard giggles and, oh my goodness look at what’s in there, off in the distance. That made me smile through my half dazed sleeping state. I might have dozed off for another few minutes but it wasn’t long before the baby woke up and our day kicked off. We gathered around in our living room and kicked our tradition off with reading the Easter story, praying as a family, and thanking our Lord for the ultimate sacrifice He paid on calvary. After that, it was full on diving into baskets and seeing their smiles. Oh wait, let me back up a bit. If you caught my insta stories you might have seen that my son was pretty convinced that his bunny is in fact the Easter bunny. Ha! These silly boys even had him hopping around and then dropped skittles behind him and said, look mama, he pooped out skittles. Yup, NEVER a dull moment around here. So to make it special for him, we did put his bunny in a basket near their Easter baskets.
We decided we would do a nice family brunch for the five of instead of a big dinner. You guys, we loved it! I think this is how we might go from here on out. The boys ate great, there was something for all of us, and none of us were hungry after. We tuned into our digital church service and enjoyed it outside on our deck in the beautiful sunshine.
I previously took pictures of the boys for Easter, but let’s just say they did not come out at all like I had played out in my head. Isn’t that most cases though? If you’ve been reading these little parts for awhile you know that one of my favorite traditions is Easter pics with a live bunny for the boys. Well, wouldn’t you know the year we have our own rabbit they didn’t go as planned. That’s ok though. The boys had fun and that’s what matters. I could have made them all get dressed up again and redo them (as I’m sure most perfectionists would have done) but you know what, the original memories wouldn’t have been there. Really, the only thing that didn’t work out was the extremely harsh lighting. I got so excited to used our new shed as a backdrop (talk about adulting) and we went out on the first nice day after a stretch of rainy days (we were all excited to get outside). The clouds ended up breaking and there was nothing but direct sunlight. Our backyard doesn’t get shade until almost after sunset, so there was no waiting, unless it was a completely different day. They still look super cute and their smiles outweigh any shadows, or squinting.
Back to Easter day, after brunch we went back outside because it ended up being super nice. We were originally supposed to get rain but it ended up being beautiful. My sister drove by and tossed some eggs out of the car for the boys as we shared some Easter moments together. Haha that gave a whole new meaning to a drive by egging (if that’s even really a thing). They had so much fun running around and grabbing them and seeing what she put inside.
We also setup a little hunt for them in the midst of our Christmas trees. They were running around like crazy going for all of the eggs and making sure not to miss them. Before all this craziness happened in the world, we were planning on continuing an egg hunt which is a hopeful tradition with our friends. I had everything we needed and didn’t want it to go to waist. We’re hoping we can resume all the Easter fun with our friends next year.
The rest of the day we spent sitting outside on our porch taking in the beautiful feel of the rays of sun, laughing with each other, and watching the boys get excited about the eggs they found. Then, our brave little guy decided he was going to be bold and stood up on his own! This was a huge moment for him and his excitement melted my proud mama heart. He has gone from not showing much interest in walking or standing to wanting to take off. Both of my other boys walked right around their first birthday, so waiting for him to find his legs has been a very different experience. We are all routing for him and cheering him on. Seeing how proud he was was one of the best moments.
The boys had candy overload, I mean, what kid didn’t? But we tried our best to get them to wind down. We curled up on the couch and watched a family movie and then turned it in for the night.
We were originally supposed to be in Saint Martin for spring break spending Easter on the beach, and while that still sounds like it would have been a beautiful option, we knew quickly after things started to get bad that our vacation was not happening. Even though our Easter celebration might have been different than what we are used to, we still had a great day together which made it extra special. I hope you and your families were also able to find joy in the day and the time spent together.
