HAPPY EASTER!

Easter is one of THE BEST holidays! So welcome this year -- it came at the end of our Spring Break Vacation and capped the week off beautifully.

Grammy Lisa with her Easter Lily...Lily did her make-up all by herself!!

To introduce the slide show below, a few notes:

After a day or two of Easter eggs and flowers and cookie-making, we woke up to a rather cold but eventually clear Easter Sabbath. Everyone donned their new Easter wear and headed for church after a mouthful of Easter basket candy and then let Mom take a few pictures afterward before the sweats and slippers replaced our Sunday best.

Here's where one of the more embarrassing moments took place -- Mom talked everyone into sitting for a family photo out in front of the house with the flowers and all dutifully, if not begrudgingly, cooperated. While Mom set the camera on a rock behind some bushes and tried to trigger the self-timer, the rest of the family situated themselves looking at it which meant that they were also facing the street and our neighbors' homes. The camera was not visible from the street and so as I pushed the timer, raced to my spot, and we all put on our broadest grins for the camera (which we kept waiting to click), our neighbors pulled up to their home and saw our entire family grinning broadly toward them in the perfect posed arrangement of bodies for, as far as they could see, no apparent reason other than to greet passers-by. Yes...I know....it was mortifying. The story ends with them coming over and helping us take the pictures instead, which is a good thing because after visiting and laughing with them and our next door neighbors, we went inside to check the pics and discovered that our self-timed one never happened! So, next time you need a family photographer, try posing in front of your home and simply smiling!

We had a lovely Easter celebration. It was just so serene and filled with the Spirit. The family almost felt complete because while we were waiting for dinner to cook and Joel's family to arrive, we skyped with Derek's family and enjoyed the darling sight of all 4 of them - giggling, dancing, singing, and showing us their toys, their fat, and their smiles (the little boys, of course -- I didn't see an ounce of fat or one moment of high-stepping from either Derek OR Lindsey).

The family gathered around the big dining table for a traditional Nelson Easter dinner of glazed ham, au gratin potatoes, peas, rolls, and Val's delicious raspberry pretzel-jello which was by request via our girls. And, I introduced "frog eye" salad as an appetizer which some already knew about and loved and others squinted their eyes to because of the texture and probably the name and decided to demurely set their serving aside. All the more leftovers for those of us who really liked it! We didn't even make it to the lemon pound cake. We're still working our way through that one.

We also didn't get to watch our traditional "Ben Hur" movie - I suppose last year's viewing was enough for our youngest ones to be satiated with that show for a while, but we did watch the church's Easter video with Elder Holland's talk and images of the crucifixion and resurrection. Truly beautiful. And perfect. Plus, we opted to play Apples to Apples which is always kind of fun for a group like ours with so many different age groups. We play the Junior version to ensure the content will be G-rated and it's just great fun.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The weater was cold but our hearts were warm and it was actually kind of sad to see the whole thing come to a close, but it made us so very grateful for the many blessings we have been given by our Father in Heaven - our family, our surroundings, our Savior, and our testimonies of His true church and gospel.