Easter Sunday

My younger brother survived The Crucible this past week; a 54 hour long journey one must complete before officially becoming a Marine. It involves no sleep, two small packs of food, a 40 mile trek, and incredibly grueling and difficult tasks and obstacles in between it all. I was thinking about him nearly every minute between Wednesday and Friday as he was completing it, praying that he was at least scraping by. And he did. And now he’s an official Marine. Later this week my family and I are flying down to watch him graduate. I couldn’t be more proud or excited.

Easter was bittersweet for me. Holidays are all about family. Well, my family is all over the country right now, and spreading further by the minute. But knowing we will all be together for 2 very short days later this week made it a little better.

So in the meantime, I celebrated Easter with my family away from family. And as we were prepping the chicken to be cooked in the crockpot all afternoon, sipping our wine, and dancing around the kitchen; the boys of course drinking beers and hysterically laughing at something on the computer; it really felt like a little family.

We had a great little spread of food. I made sweet potato chips, and put together a feta, strawberry, walnut, and spinach salad. Alison made a similar dish to my ribbon zucchini pasta along with a sauteed cabbage and apple salad. Laura Rose and Adrianna put together those savory turnovers. And plenty of wine and slow cooked chicken to go around. Friends stopping in and out throughout the meal.

It was a good day. And a great feast. And even better company.

Hope you had a great holiday if you were celebrating, whether you were with family or a family away from family.

P.S. I will most likely be taking a break during the week from blogging. I have a bunch of things to do and finish up before leaving Wednesday morning, and then my entire attention will be spent enjoying the 2 very short days I will have with my family as we watch my younger brother become a Marine.