Destination Dagobah: He is Risen indeed!

I didn't get to post yesterday mainly because Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures and secondarily I was preoccupied with eating and catching up on facebook. It was such a glorious day. Our church has been having a lot of cross cultural sharing/worship in the past year celebrating the cultures and countries of origin of our congregation. Yesterday we heard about Easter traditions in Uruguay, Brazil, Cameroon, black America. We sang songs in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili and English. We did the tradition call and response, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed also in English, Spanish and French. It was so wonderful. Our community is really blessed to have people from all over the world. Hearing of people's memories of Easters growing up, I was flooded with memories of my own childhood and thought a lot about the childhood I am helping create for Lucas.

In my childhood, we went to mass at the big cathedral downtown each Easter. They have this amazing pipe organ and trumpeters would play the Hallelujah chorus. I have been to bigger, more impressive cathedrals all over the world but Cathedral of Immaculate Conception at Columbus Circle in Syracuse is by far my favorite and a place which holds such memories for me as child. After mass we would walk down to the Hotel Syracuse for fancy brunch; ice sculptures and omelet stations and towers of desserts. We made that walk in sunshine, rain and snow because you never know what the weather will be like in Syracuse on Easter Sunday. While waiting for our table, we would read the NY Times. Brian used to put baggies on his hands so the newspaper ink wouldn't make them dirty. We would sit at our table eating and laughing and many years planning our summer vacations. Thanks Mom and Dad for always making our family a priority and for filling our childhood with such wonderful memories.

Today we got to take Lucas to church, worship in several different languages and celebrate the Lord's resurrection with our Vineyard family. Having Gabby and Nile with us made Bill's Easter complete. Everyone enjoyed their baskets and after Lucas' nap we went out for pizza at Sam's so Bill could break his beer fast. We ended up not only eating pizza but cheese fries, fried cheese balls and jalapeno poppers; nothing says Happy Easter likes piles of fried cheese. We have been going to Sam's on Easter Sunday for three years now and it has become our family tradition. Bug got two little homemade rabbits in his Easter basket that Bill's mom made for him as a child. I can't wait until we can go on a Easter egg hunt next year with him. It is a heady responsibility, being in charge of some one's childhood. I can only pray and hope that I can give Bug a childhood worth of amazing memories like I have of my own.

He looked ridiculously adorable in his Easter outfit-- thanks to the McDonalds who gave it to us. Hopefully Terri and Kate are still checking my blog.

The hat didn't stay on long