He is Risen!

Happy Easter Monday!

Big news in the Smith family Easter sphere -- the egg dying contest tradition has officially passed to the next generation! 😊 Last Easter, Josey's impending arrival was announced in a decorated egg. This Easter, Josey won her first egg decorating award (though it might be on a technicality, as she clearly had assistance and napped through the awards!) But who cares - it was a fun moment!

The judges prepped ahead of time and prepared the categories early, which allowed Grammie to up-the-game and bring extra flair with decorative ribbon on the awards. 💜

Because the Browns were unable to travel and stayed in Houston to care for Barbara, there were fewer eggs entered into the contest. The reduced count unintentionally resulted in some of the favorite categories not being awarded. (EX. Robby worked hard to try and earn the "Most Patriotic Egg", but it surprisingly didn't make the cut, and instead won "Most Colorful". )

But on the flip side, with no Brown cousins vying for awards, that opened the door for Danielle to win the coveted "Most Blue" title, which has gone to Ethan the past several years. 

And Naomi won a revamped category of "Most Lovely". 

That is one loverly egg!

We ate, celebrated birthdays, walked in nature (spotting a hawk, turtles, baby ducks), played online boogle (Ava and Kade crushed it!) and ate some more! Definitely a loverly day with family. 

And we still managed to celebrate via Zoom "with" the Browns in Houston, and nurse Gracie in Charleston, South Carolina.

Easter Sunday was a glorious morning! Happy to have Naomi home to celebrate with us. 

Lunch turned out to be a slightly smaller Easter crowd than expected, as back pain took out one and the 24-hour bug knocked down another, but nice to be surrounded by family on the day where the message is hope and the motive is love. 

Side note: For Lent this year, I intentionally avoided wasting time scrolling on news sites. I received a daily email with headlines news (so, yes I was aware the US attacked Iran unprovoked which clarified for me why gas prices were so incredibly high all of a sudden), but I avoided reading any stories. I opted to invest my time on other endeavors, including the amazing Pray 40 series on Hallow. And then, the first story I read (post-Lent), was quite shocking. I could not believe what I was seeing from our president on Easter morning. This is not AI. His account was not hacked. These are his words, from his very own social media account and platform. Uh, why not, at least, wait until the day after the biggest Christian holiday to post the most un-Christ-like statement ever for all the evangelical followers to see? This was clearly calculated. But whatever. The message today is still hope and the motive is still love, even for those who are not quite ready to receive it.   

For the record...