Easter Celebrations

We had a fun/not-so-fun Easter holiday. We thoroughly enjoyed time with family and friends, however these fun times were intermingled with bouts of the flu all throughout the week. Not a member of our family was spared. It started with Summer on Monday, Jim and I both got knocked off our feet on Thursday, and Dixie finally picked it up on Saturday. I was the only one who never threw up (that's my super strong stomach at work!) but we all suffered at some point. Jim was hit the hardest and is still working on a full recovery, but for the rest of us, we were only down for about 24 hours at any given time.
So anyway... we enjoyed what we could with whom we could and left it at that. :)

Saturday we had fun with family at Mom and Dad Roberts' home. Fun Easter games (including one with a real bunny!), an egg hunt, and pinata... and of course good food!

This year we were trying to make a special effort to make Christ the center of the Easter holiday. Each night of the week leading up to Easter, we tried to read from the scriptures what was going on at that point in Christ's life. We ended up missing several nights due to illnesses, but it was still really neat. Saturday night we filled in the gaps of what we'd missed through the week and ended the night with Christ being crucified and buried in the tomb. Then Sunday morning the Easter bunny left a note next to a picture of Christ with Mary Magdelene at the empty tomb for the girls that said, "Dixie and Summer, I hope you will always remember the real reason for Easter-- Jesus Christ. Remember He lives and loves you very much! I've hidden your baskets for you  to find after a special story. Love, The Easter Bunny"
And then we read from the scriptures about Jesus being resurrected and discussed what that means for us in our lives. It was neat seeing how much Dixie could actually understand (Summer was a different story) and it was a wonderful, spiritual start to our Easter Sunday. I thoroughly anticipate we will carry this on to be a new family tradition.
Then the girls scouted around until they found their Easter baskets and thoroughly enjoyed rummaging through their goods. They each got a new swimming suit and a DVD movie (Tangled and a Care Bears movie).

It was a great Easter. Loves to you all!