This easter we stayed at home which we have never done before! It was probably my favorite easter since getting married! We were able to really focus on the meaning of easter, spend time with those closest to us and didn’t have the rush and stress of traveling!
On Easter Sunday I woke up early before Trent or the girls were awake and read the New Testament accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and it was beautiful to be in the house so quiet and clean and calm and although I was initially worried about being ‘all alone’ this easter that was probably my very favorite part of the weekend and I was the most alone I was all weekend!
Don’t get me wrong we did lots of other fun things Easter weekend including having a Holi Party with our good friends the Millers and an Easter egg hunt and even went swimming too! The Millers really know how to have a good time and really wore us out, haha. We had friends join us for church and later a small family dinner where I tried to make sour dough rolls that turned out pretty good for a first try if I do say so myself :).
The Holi Color Throw is a tradition that we have had in our family for a while and though both the dates of Holi (the celebration of colors in India) and Easter change each year, and they were pretty far apart this month, they are usually around the same general time of year so we celebrate them together!
Indian culture is something my family loves, we are big fans of Bollywood and when my mom lived in Paris for school the American Dorm was full so she stayed in the Indian Dorms that she always tells us smelled permanently like curry and spices. I’d like to think that’s where our love of India began. It has carried on down to a third generation as Brighten LOVES watching Mira, Royal Detective which is a Bollywood inspired children’s cartoon about a little Indian girl.
Something that I love about the United States is that we love to take and appreciate the cultures of others all over the world and create our own traditions out of them. I think this is a good life tactic to glean from; focus on what you have in common with others, take and learn from what you see as good and implement it in your own life and leave the rest. Rather than focusing on differences and reasons why others are ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’. I think this idea fits right in with the message of Jesus Christ as He transcended all worldly cultures in His earthly ministry (which is arguably the greatest contributing factor to His controversy during His life), yet still had compassion and understanding for the cultures that people held dear, and spoke to them and taught them in that context.
One of my favorite easter memories this year that I never want to forget was going to the easter pageant. Since it is so close to our house we got to watch all the commotion for weeks (remember when a Roman soldier hopped into one of my sessions a few weeks ago?!) For that same reason we were able to attend the pageant 3 times! On the third time when all was quiet after Jesus had died and Mary was at the tomb Brighten yelled loudly LOOK! SEE, JESUS IS ALIVE AGAIN!
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