Easter is HERE!

Anybody who knows me well know that I love Easter.  I love Easter more than any other holiday.  Even more that Christmas.  I am an Easter person.
Not being able to go home for Easter this year was tough.  I would rather miss Christmas with my family than miss Easter with them.  I jsut love the whole season.  I love lent (I know, I'm strange.  If you didn't know that by now, it's time you learned).  I love memorizing verses with my brothers and sisters and hanging them on the memory cross.  I love helping mom make the play-doh for her class.  I love Palm Sunday and watching the kids process in, poking each other in the eye with palm branches and singing the same songs I sang when I was one of them.  I love welcoming the new members into our congregation. I love cleaning the house for the seder.  I love getting out the passover dishes and setting the tables.  I love the smell of all the different foods as they arrive on Thursday evening.  I love the somberness of church on Good Friday morning and the potluck that follows.  I love eating leftovers from the seder on Saturday.  I love Easter morning.  I love waking up and knowing that today we are going to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love hunting for my Easter basket.  I love reciting my verses so I can get my clues so I can find my eggs.
I love going to church and greeting everyone with a hug and the words "Christ is risen" and hearing the response "He is risen indeed".  I love getting together as a family and dying dozens of eggs with white crayons and dye and then sitting down to eat them with bread and butter and meat (and raisin bread!) and smashing them into each other (or someone's head).  And I love Easter Monday, even if it does just mean more homework and such.
Yes, I love Easter and not being able to be home for any of it this year was hard, but, G-d is good. Last night as I sat at my computer journalling, talking (instant messaging) with friends and working on my paper (I like to multi-task...) and G-d brought some scriptures to my mind.  Some really good ones (All scripture is good, but these were especially meaningful at the time).  I grabbed a book to try and find some more clarity on the topic and ended up stumbling (not literally) onto some really good stuff that I needed to read right then.  G-d is good, G-d is faithful, and G-d blesses me so much.  Hallelu....JAH!
I finally went to bed at about 1:15 this morning...when it comes to Easter I'm worse than a kid on Christmas Eve, no joking.  I love Easter.  Then I was up shortly after 5 so that I could be at church for the 6am sunrise service.  Yeah Easter! We sang some of my favorite Easter hymns and everyone else had communion and then we had breakfast and then more church...After that though, it was nap time.
After nap I went down to the kitchen to start prepping for the seder.  At home we usually do the seder on Thursday afore Good Friday, but when you are in college you improvise sometimes.  Really most of the seder was improvised this year.  I was celebrating with friends who had never celebrated before though, so they didn't know the difference.  Now I am very full and very content.  I like Easter a whole lot.