Thankful Easter

I love Easter. Jesus died and rose again to forgive us for our sins. It's the beginning of spring- so beautiful out!  I always love the Easter services- beautiful music whether sunrise or regular service. Our NC church Manna has a combined Easter service at the Crown which sounded too hard for me two weeks after Van's arrival. so we decided to have a family Easter service at home. We started on Friday with the Seder service we've been doing for the last 3-4 years. Such a great reminder of the Jewish heritage and ceremonies. 

We use our fine China on Easter; I was tempted to use other plates this year with new baby but I had kids reminded me we use our best once a year for "the most important holiday" and several people volunteered to wash dishes so we did and I'm so glad! What a nice meal!

Easter morning we had a family Easter service on our front porch. James selected several songs to sing together and talked about God's sacrifice. When we finished, we went inside and then saw a dove sitting on the tree right outside our window!

This year I planned to make the Empty Tomb rolls but didn't get crescent rolls so I decided to make homemade and I'm so glad I did. Even though I grumbled a little that they were harder to make, they were so good. 

Then Grandma and Uncle Brian came. We decided to have Thanksgiving since James was away in November. James' Big Easy'd a turkey which turned out so good! Grandma brought sweet potato casserole, green beans, and an Easter cake. 

Grandma brought these yummy eggs too!

Uncle Brian's first day meeting baby V

Easter cake

James' turkey

K made these Easter placemats

flip them over and Thanksgiving placemats. Who knew when he made the placemats, that we'd have such a Thankful Easter!