An Easter Story

Easter is one of my top three favorite holidays. It ranks up with Thanksgiving and Christmas in my book. However, being in school kind of puts a damper on things. With our busy week of school, projects, and work we really didn't have too much planed for Easter this year. My family was in Rochester, NY attending the baby blessing of my new niece Ava (totally jealous!) and the part of Matt's family that lives close to us were all sick. With both of our families living so close, we really don't do holidays on our own too often!

Our Easter was different from past years. No Easter egg hunts or dyeing eggs. Both activities I totally love and openly endorse. We just didn't prepare well enough in advance. In fact, the dinner plans we did have for Easter Sunday fell through late Saturday evening. So when we woke up Sunday morning I had no idea how the day would pan out. And that is a rare thing for someone like myself who is on the verge of OCD when it comes to planning.

My first priority was figuring something out for our Easter dinner. Leftovers just didn't sound very festive. Luckily my mom keeps a well stocked fridge, even when she is going out of town for the next week! We went on a scavenger hunt through our pantry and my parents fridge next door to figure out what we could put together. To my delight we found some wondrous items over at my parents that would likely spoil by the time they return from NY. So really, we were doing them a HUGE favor. ;) Here's what we put together.

Easter Menu

Appetizer: Deviled Eggs & Ceasar Salad (Not together, that thought makes me want to gag...)

Main Course: Grilled Steak* (thanks to my parents freezer), mashed potatoes, and asparagus

Deseret: Hershey's chocolate bar & Mother Goose Pop Corn

*Don't worry, Matt did all the grilling. After my incident earlier this week, I wasn't allowed near the grill! 

Besides our less than par desert selection, that by the way did a very effective job of satisfying after dinner cravings, we were pretty proud of our efforts! That is until I went on Facebook and learned that ham is the iconic Easter meat. Where was I when the world decided on that? I feel like I just cooked chicken on Thanksgiving. Oh well, next year we won't make the same rookie mistake! 

With our late 2:00 church, we had a relaxing morning just spending time together. We each planned our church lessons and spent some time outside enjoying the sun.

After dinner we took Aussie, my parents dog, for a walk around the neighborhood. Or she took us on a walk...

That was pretty much it. Before you go on feeling sorry for us that we were not that festive this year, our relaxing, relatively uneventful Easter was exactly what we needed in our crazy lives.

Even without the candy and the eggs, I was reminded that Easter is a special day of the year. I love that we have a day set apart in the year to tighten our focus on our Redeemer.

As prophets have so eloquently declared, “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!” (D&C 76:22). 

I too know that Jesus Christ lives! I certainly don't know everything, but I know that Jesus Christ lived, died for us, and lives again. This precious knowledge gives hope to the world. Hope that darkness and despair will never last forever. Hope that we are never alone. Hope that we will be reunited with our deceased family members. Hope that this life is so much more than we can ever comprehend. Hope is what makes life beautiful and worth living!