Easter 2013

This Easter, we dyed eggs and spent a beautiful day at the park hunting candy eggs with the Ayres, Malones, Wolfs, and Randolph families.

Dave one afternoon joined Jessica for a little contraband Easter candy under cover. 

Jessica's Easter basket wasn't overflowing with presents and candy Sunday morning.  The only mention of the Easter bunny was to say he was leaving a basket, because I like to emphasize the religious reasons for Easter. So I bought some new Christian movies: Ben Hur & The Ten Commandments, Prince of Egypt, and The Miracle Maker (a 60's claymation of the life of Christ, which was pretty good for kids.)

For religious remembrances, I hung up a picture of Christ for every day in Holy Week. We invited the Bonneys and Ayres families over for Monday's Family Home Evening. We acted out the triumphal entry (kids in a vest riding adults who crawled over blankets and plastic palm fronds) and the cleansing of the Jewish temple (knocking over little stools with dimes on them.) The kids thought it was great fun. Dave gave the lesson of the Easter symbols in plastic eggs, and we made resurrection buns for a treat.

On Good Friday we hosted a "Jerusalem Dinner". Not a Passover meal, but a meal like Christ would have eaten. We sat on the floor, eating food from the first century Jewish culture: cucumbers, grapes, dates and plain yogurt, lentil soup, fish, honey and flatbread, and the conversation dish: beef tongue.

The Albert and Young families brought food, but it was the Davids family that had a frozen beef tongue from having their cow butchered, and thought this a perfect meal to use it. They brought it made up in the Jewish tradition: rough outside peeled off, sliced, then slow cooked with leeks and carrots, and eaten topped with a salty anchovie and caper relish. I ate a few bites; it was savory, but the idea of it was too much for me to take second helpings. The missionaries however, despite a 15-minute tongue discussion, (i.e., how a whole beef tongue is the shape and size of a sneaker,) were clueless to the fact that they were eating tongue until after they ate several helpings!  You can see the glass dish of tongue at the top of the picture on the right.
 

And I decided to spend my birthday money on table decorations for Easter Sunday. {I wanted the tablescape to be turquoise, but tablecloth selection at stores these days is pretty bleak. And the only fabric at 60-72" wide is made for sofas, not spring tableaus. So I bought a 10-foot, banquet-sized white tablecloth, and topped it with purple fabric leftover from Jessica's birthday. I choose spring silk flowers and a birdcage for the centerpiece. (I shunned the summer roses and daisies for native daffodils, tulips, dogwood and cherry blossoms, and pussy willows.)} 

And voila! It was definitely bright, cheerful, and symbolic of new life with the nest of eggs and twigs laid in a cross. I know I could've made this a simpler production. But what does it say to Jessica when we invite friends over to eat the same everyday food on paper plates, buffet-style? This is not just any party; I want to make Easter feel very different, because it's as important to Christians as Christmas.

This year was extra pretty, and the food even matched the tableware to a degree: white dishes, purple and yellow cakes (thanks to the Wights), yellow ducky rolls, purple-dyed hard-boiled eggs, and a record-setting 10-layer jello (Jared! you're the man!).

And the best part of course was eating it with our new Lynchburg friends. We have really enjoyed getting to know so many great families at church. Over dinner we had fun chatting with the Wights, Gentrys, and Penrods.  Thanks for your friendship, and making our celebration of the Lord's Resurrection special!

The sacrament service was uplifting; we heard a talk with the theme of "What does the Resurrection mean to (various people)?". A double octet sang a beautiful, part a capella "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands", and our choir sang a very moving version of "He is Risen", accompanied by me. I practiced a lot, because I wanted to add what I could to the spirit of the day. I injured my arm a little practicing it, the notes being very loud and complex, but it was worth it. Happy Easter!