Easter Focus

We had a lovely Easter this year. For the first time in a long time, we were able to go to our own church and then go to Poppa Keith and Grandma Betsy's without worrying about a baby missing a critical nap and melting down. Cousin Mary Caroline was there with Aunt Abby and Uncle Adam, and so were Aunt Lindsay, Aunt Gwen, and Aunt Whitney. Grandma Betsy The Easter Bunny left some wonderful baskets for the kids -- they had a great Christmas Easter.

My adorable children and their adorable cousin were dressed in adorable outfits. The weather was beyond perfect for outdoor pictures -- 80 degrees and sunny. No one was too cold or too hot. No one was hungry or uncomfortably full. No one's shoes were hurting. It was a good day for everyone. True to form, the majority of our pictures looked like this:

or this:

or (sigh) this:

This is (seriously) probably the best Easter 2010 photo we got:

Not all the photos were awful. We did get some cute shots. Couldn't you eat this up?

Love the sweet look on Adam's face here. Notice Andrew is carefully cropped out. You can guess the reason.

Libby's not too thrilled but at least not actively unhappy:

Poor Mary Caroline was in need of a nap but gamely tried to be a part of pictures:

Well, at least the Easter cookies stood still!

I just read a magazine article (I think in Southern Living) that suggested the reason most Easters are so cold is that God is reminding all the people who end up freezing in their Easter finery that Easter isn't about that. Amen. Easter isn't about my adorable children, their adorable cousin, and certainly not their adorable clothes. It isn't about the perfect family Easter picture. (Whew. That's definitely good news for us.) It actually makes me kind of glad to see our crazy, imperfect family captured in crazy, imperfect pictures this Easter. It puts Easter -- the real Easter -- into focus.

Christ is risen indeed.