He is Risen

I love Easter. I love the hymns, the food, being with my family. My sister came over yesterday to make baklava and koulourakia with our mother and I and talk. I love these pre-festival preparations. I laid out and arranged the filo dough and Alix brushed on the butter and it settled into a repetitive pattern as we talked about family and friends, her up-coming wedding and work. Mom made the syrup and started on the dough for the koulourakia. We didn't have enough sugar so we added more honey instead and the baklava came out much better this year. The sermon this morning was very nice, church was packed. Dad's lamb was excellent and the wines he opened were perfect. And we still have extra pastry as well as a bowl of red eggs.

I find it funny when people comment on the paganism of the eggs and rabbits as not relating to the Christian festival as though they've just discovered the crack in the whole shebang. Like you can't celebrate two different traditions at once, like you should limit yourself. Even as a kid I understand that the rabbits had nothing to do with Christ's resurrection and had more to do with the rebirth of the world. And if you can't see it that way, well, dyed eggs are colorful decorations and edible and bunnies are cute. Sometimes that's all you need. We just came through a harsh winter with heavy snows, power outages, and for a lot of people, much, much worse. Rejoice! With rabbits.