Easter 2011

Our Easter gathering is a serious tradition for my dad’s side of the family (click here). But what it all really comes down to is this:

Traditional Easter Saturday Gathering of the Mr. Leslie Johnson Family

And this:

Cousins Before Church on Easter Sunday Morning

We all drive from all over to come together. And come together we do. And all the planning and prepping and packing and pondering-if-this-is-really-still-all-worth-it fades away quickly when the gathering gets going. Oh yes, it is worth it. It is very, very worth it. It is worth it to make the effort to see our extended family of “Easter Cousins” once a year. It is worth it to give our kids the gift of this tradition. It is worth it to remind ourselves of the rituals and routines and religious-life that kept generations before us doing exactly the same thing that we’re doing now: getting together. Making the effort to make it happen. Showing our kids what it is all about. Yes, it is worth it. So worth it.

Secondarily, there is this too:

baskets filled and waiting on Easter Eve

Easter Bunny Magic. Magic, I tell you. Magical! 6:21 am, and the gift that is received by this Mama is much more great and grand than anything that was given. The looks on their faces~~ marvelously magical! A gift unto itself. Yes, so worth it.

“wacky wally” octopuses crawling the walls, umbrella’s opened, sunrise, and hot coffee – this is the stuff that memories are made of

The Easter Finery. A tradition passed down, and passed down, and passed down. Did I have to go all-out with the Easter Sunday church outfits? No, of course not. But was it worth it? Oh yes. Just to see them feeling like a million bucks a piece…. yes, it is worth every cent, every hassle, every late-night-online-purchase-to-make-sure-it-was-all-just-perfect. The ironing, the clothes hanging in the back of the car for the five hour drive, the 30-minutes-I-spent-with-their-clothes-and-a-Stain-Stick-in-our-laundry-room-after-we-returned-home-after-Easter… yes, all worth it.

And somewhere in there were other things well-worth-it too. Things not captured with photos. Things like meals shared and great glasses of wine and connecting conversations; baseball games played on muddy wet fields; Easter “Shows” performed by eager kids for adoring adults; books read aloud; stories told; hugs and kisses; and fishing. Yes, Kyle fished in the cold and pouring rain on Saturday morning for over an hour with his incredibly generous and patient Uncle Mark and never caught a thing. But he loved every minute of it and won’t forget it for a long time (maybe never?). And on Sunday afternoon the kids fished again (this time in the warm and sun). Only one little sunfish was caught, and thrown back (and it wasn’t even caught by the dedicated fisherman Kyle, it was caught by Sadie by happenstance), but still… it was so worth it. Worth it just for the fun of it. Just for the heck of it. Just for the love of it. Worth it just because it is worth it.

Yes, it was all worth it. And it always will be.