Easter 2015

Our first celebration in our new home was Easter, just a few days after we moved in. Therefore, we hardly had any decorations up this year but it didn't keep us from celebrating the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ.

We are all about teaching our children the true meaning of each season and are happy to see that Amelia loves reading about Jesus. Actually, she prefers her children bible storybook over any other book and I just love how inquisitive she is and open minded. She also watched the Easter story on DVD with her daddy and really liked it. I don't think though that she grasped the whole story yet but every year she will understand more and more.

It was a chilly Easter morning here in North Carolina, but the kids were excited to find their Easter basket filled with goodies on the breakfast table.

The Easter bunny brought them a new bucket for the sandbox, some bath tub toys, a jump rope, and a couple of music instruments.

After a yummy breakfast we headed to church. Even though we haven't been to church in a long time (we tried multiple churches in Florida but never felt st home at any of them), we vowed that once we move we will seek out a church and start going again. And that's what we did on Easter Sunday. And I'm very glad we did because we really enjoyed the Easter mass as well as meeting new people there. We saw this church when we explored the area on our trip in February and liked how the church looked (aka like a real church with stain glass windows, not a mega church, outside pavilion and a nearby playground for the kids). Once inside, we were right away welcomed and the people were genuinely friendly and open. They were happy to have us visit them and we all loved being there. The kids went to the nursery for most part of the worship service, but next Sunday Amelia will actually participate in Children's church. The sermon was well done and it felt good hearing the Lord's word. We will definitely go back on Sunday and hope to make this our regular church. Even though we are Catholics by nomination, we are open to this United Methodist Church.  I truly believe that it is not important where you hear the Lord's word but that you do hear it and take it to your heart. 

Over daytime, it warmed up nicely and so we had a little Easter egg hunt for the kids in the backyard after nap time. They enjoyed finding some plastic eggs filled with gummi bears and little chocolate eggs. 

Afterwards we had a little picnic on the patio (we don't own patio furniture yet) and since I didn't had time to bake something, we enjoyed a store-bought vanilla cupcake.

When I grew up in Germany, we always had an Easter fire at church before or after the Easter vigil (a bonfire where the priest lit the paschal candle - the burning candle symbolizes Christ as the light of this world). So I thought it would be great to continue that tradition here and have our own Easter fire in our backyard (and use that fire pit).

Once the fire was lit, we decided to have a little outdoor dinner and roasted some hotdogs and marshmallows.

The kids enjoyed their second picnic of the day on the patio. And the adults enjoyed a cold beverage.

Despite the fact that our Easter was very low-key this year, it was just perfect and I couldn't have been happier - because I was together with my loved ones celebrating that He is risen. I hope you had a blessed Easter too.