Happy Easter!
Our day started out very early; Michael,
Rowen, Rebecca, and I walked to the church together and were there in time to
help with the work and warm-ups; and then we had an amazing hour and a half of
Easter immersion while leading the sunrise service.
We had a bit of Easter Bunny fun before I
left for the church, but I actually missed out on most of that; since I really
needed to hurry to get showered and ready for the day. Mom, Dad, and the twins had more time to play;
but only because we all skipped Tai Chi this morning and only had snacks for
breakfast since we were having the pancake breakfast at the church between
services. My snack was a pair of
chocolate bunny ears.
The sunrise service was really amazing, and
the highlight for Michael and I was our duet; though everything really was
special – and I especially loved watching the parts that my best friends helped
out with. Tim has a real gift for skits,
and while Rowen is still comparatively shy; she had fun with her parts in the
skits – and also helped out a bit here and there with some flute playing for a
couple of the songs. I don’t mention it
often enough; but Rowen really is a very talented flautist. Not very many people in town actually know
that, since she isn’t interested in the spotlight that goes along with solos,
but trust me; she really is quite gifted.
Let’s not go into the details of the
service, since it was recorded and available to watch if you’re interested in watching
it; and instead keep the report moving along.
While I loved being part of the sunrise service, we – the teens – didn’t
have time to take a break after the service because we needed to get into work
mode for the pancake breakfast. I’m sure
nobody will be surprised to know that Michael had a leadership role in the
kitchen – or that his job was on the cleanup side of the action there. I helped out with the cooking at first; moved
on to being one of the servers; and wrapped up with some dishwashing – doing two
rotations of those jobs for the first and second breakfast sittings.
All of that work was a blast even with all
of the busy and effort we put into it.
Most of the teens ate on the fly, and while I missed out on it; my
family was collectively at the second sitting; and some of them used the break
time to head home and work on the Easter dinner cooking that was in progress at
four homes. The clean-up wasn’t finished
by the time the regular Sunday service started, but Michael and I couldn’t stay
in the kitchen to finish up because we were helping out with some of the music
for that service – the little encore that the teen praise team did for the
benefit of the members of our congregation that couldn’t make it to the sunrise
service for various reasons.
It was past-noon by the time we were on our
way home, but that didn’t mean a slowdown in the action. Michael and I split up so that we could get
changed, but then he came over to my house in time to help with moving our
dinner contributions over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house. We didn’t have dinner with my family today
because both family meals were booked for the same time today, and since I got
to spend most of the day with my family yesterday; it only seemed fair that Michael
and I have the Easter dinner with his family.
The gourmet food options that Jacob
contributed to the meal did not in any way sway our decision on that – honest!
;^)
We did split our time between my family and
his this afternoon, though; and we were on kid control and playing with our
siblings and cousins pretty much all afternoon.
It’s been another really nice afternoon; so we spent a lot of that time
outdoors; and there were always extra kids or teens out playing with us. The Bassett-Stone family meal was the
highlight of my afternoon, and while the food really was awesome; it was
getting the time together with Michael’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and
cousins that I really loved the most.
Nearly everyone I know in town was having
mid-afternoon meals so that visiting family and friends could hit the road for
home early enough to not be driving late into the night. Michael and I were on the clean-up crew after
dinner, so I missed out on the packing work going on with my family, but we
were finished in time to get in on the goodbye hugs and kisses – along with
just a little more play time with my cousins before they were rounded up and
loaded into cars, minivans, or SUV’s when it was time to leave. The goodbyes took a while, since we’re not
going to see most of the visitors this weekend until sometime this summer –
either on the Fourth of July holiday or later.
It was going on six o’clock by the time all
of our guests had left and Michael and I had done a post-visit recap with my
parents, aunts, and uncles. We headed
over to his house after that; and I spent the rest of the evening there with
his parents and Rebecca. That few hours
was all about winding down from a crazy-busy day to that point; though the busy
in my day wasn’t over yet. After that
wonderfully quiet break, it was time for me to get back into work and study
mode once I was home. Mom, Dad, Ethan,
and Ehlana had all done work or studying in the office while I was gone; and
Mom switched to Magi teacher mode as soon as I got back and joined them there
at nine-thirty.
We worked on Transmutation exercises for an
hour; I took care of the bedtime action for Ethan and Ehlana; and then came up
to my room to do a nice long soak in my Jacuzzi while multi-tasking my family
business work. I did the work first in
case I got too tired out to do my archive homework and language studies, but
despite the really long day; I was apparently still fired up enough to get
everything done tonight – though it’s past three-thirty now and I am finally,
completely worn out and ready to sleep.
There are a lot of little details that I
won’t go into tonight – like the fun little gift exchange that Michael and I
did before the sunrise service. The only
message I want to include for all of those special little moments is that we’ve
had a wonderful Easter, and if filling the day with joy and love is the goal;
we definitely did that and then some!
I really need to get into nap mode, but let’s
take a quick look at the week ahead before doing that. Compared to Easter Bunny fun and excitement,
we should be in for a quiet week – or at least some of us can look forward to
that. Rowen’s parents, for instance,
will be in tax mode from now until tax day; and Rowen may help out more at the
store if they need her to do that. There
are a couple of birthdays coming up this week too, though I won’t have much
involvement in Patrick’s birthday fun, and while Gil is a friend; his birthday
is on Sunday and Michael and I will be helping out with the buffets at the Inn
next weekend while his birthday dinner will be going on at the Inn. We’ll be starting new study modules in most
of our classes at school too; and we’ll be in work mode in our classes now that
we’re starting a seven-week long stretch until the next holiday weekend.
Okay, that’s enough for now; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
