Happy Easter!

Out of all of the seasons of the church year, Easter is by far my favorite.  Speaking the proclamation "Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!" has always been special, and in a way magical.  This year, though, those words feel even more special.  Realistically, we know the odds of Judith outliving us like any child should are very low.  We know that, because of her CF, death looms much closer.  However, that small proclamation reminds me that no matter what happens to Judith, she will be well cared for because of the promises of the resurrection.

But enough of my deep, brooding thoughts.

I love attending services at this time of year, and I can't wait until Judith is older and can appreciate (heck, more like can actually sit through!) the entire Triduum.  Last year I took her to Maundy Thursday services, because let's face it: she was still sleeping all.the.time. We had zero issues.  She was ok last year during Easter Vigil, but had a meltdown when she heard me chanting and I wasn't with her (she calmed down once I was able to go back to her).  This year, I didn't take her to Maundy Thursday because I knew Vigil would be a battle - thanks to the "raging success" (/sarcasm) we had on Ash Wednesday, I would've been happy if she made it through half of the service.  Ha!  She barely lasted through 1/4 of it.  Oh well - she's still too young, and it doesn't help that evening services coincide with bedtime.  Needless to say, she didn't get to sleep until almost 9:30, 2 hours after her normal bedtime.

That made for an exciting 5:15 am wakeup call this morning for sunrise service.  Oh, and she barely slept in the car on the way to the church, and thought it would be an awesome idea to take only a 20 minute nap between 6:15 and 12:30.  Really though, I may complain, but she was pretty darn good considering all of this!

We spent some time this afternoon with my side of the family, sans my dad - long story short, we've been worried and stressed because he was admitted to the hospital about a week and a half ago, but thankfully will be coming home tomorrow (provided everything goes smoothly!).  It felt awkward without dad here, and I missed having him here.  We did have a nice dinner though, Judith made out like a bandit with her basket goodies, we had a small egg hunt in the yard (and realized that Judith still hates grass), and just enjoyed the time together.

Naturally I can't make a post about a big holiday without some pictures.  For your viewing pleasure: