Happy Easter!

What better way to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Christ than surrounded by people you love. I was able to skype with my immediate and extended family all back in the states this afternoon, which was a blast, and I loved getting to share a little piece of here with them all the way over there. They were even generous enough to 'share' their strawberry shortcake with me. (Not the same over the computer). But regardless I loved seeing all them.

It was interesting sharing in a holiday such as Easter with a different culture and a different country. This being the first Easter I have celebrated away from home, I mostly expected it to be the same as what we have in the states, but I was peculiar-ly surprised. Yes, of course the Christians here all see it as the big day as it is, and everything is closed for the whole Holy week leading up to Easter Sunday, but I realized today, no one dresses up special for church, the churches aren't all packed with the people who don't normally go, and the church isn't decorated for a celebration. It more or less was like a normal Sunday. People here don't all get together with their family for a big lunch or dinner, they don't necessarily make anything different to eat than normal. And only because there are us Americans here, did we make our own exciting Easter dinner. Like I said, I just hadn't expected things to be so different. When I first asked Ana and Moises about eating together today, they looked at me like. . . well okay, are you specifically inviting us over, or what, sure I guess? They were surprised to find out that in the states, often, family (blood or not) get together to celebrate Easter, regardless of whether or not they are Christians. I'm sure there probably are some Nicaraguans that do get together and celebrate with their family, but at least the people around here, didn't seem to see Sunday, Easter Sunday, as anything particularly special.

Either way, I had all the kids get dressed up so they looked extra nice for church. (Just don't mind the fact that it is hard to get 16 kids all looking and smiling at the same time without taking a dozen different pictures :)

And this evening we were blessed with an awesome dinner that we were all able to share in together, (us all in the home, the Jacksons, Moises, Ana, their two boys, and Kyle)

Moises was not too happy he was not a part of the picture, so he had to have one of his own. . .

He is also demonstrating the extremely delicious dinner we had of chicken fricassee (something I had never heard of, even though it is supposedly something we eat in the states) with rice and veggies in a great sauce, plus a roll! All made (except the bread) by our very own chef Antonio. (Also to give him more credit, he made dinner one night a couple weeks ago for everyone, and I told him I would try to get him a blog entry, but it didn't end up happening, so here I am giving him the credit.)

So although I wasn't at home with my blood family this Easter, I was surrounded by people I love, and who love me back. And what better way to be reminded of the reason for celebrating this day, than through LOVE.