Happy Easter!

One year ago today, Christine and I were hunting for eggs, going to church, opening Easter baskets, and having Easter brunch in Grandview, Washington; naive to the changes about to come. If only we had known how much different this Easter would be! Now we are celebrating our first married Easter in Mountain View, California.

When it comes to celebrating Easter, Christine and I certainly have had different experiences. When I was growing up, we went to Vancouver, Washington for Easter every year to see my grandparents. It was usually overcast and raining whenever we hunted eggs, making for a semi-enjoyable experience at best. So it's very strange to look out the window now and see sunny, cloudless skies and to step outside and feel warm weather. Our Easter egg hunts took place after lunch, and while somewhat entertaining, were not exactly the highlight of the day. My idea of hunting eggs was mostly an excuse to get off the couch and could be done at any time of the day; there was never a rush. And then I met my wife...

I remember the first Easter I spent with Christine and her family (long before we were married). I was sleeping happily in the guest room when I was rudely awakened at the crack of dawn by my future wife. She was holding a basket in her hand and commanded me to get out of bed. Confused, I stumbled downstairs, thinking maybe there was a fire or a flood and we were saving important items and putting them in baskets. But I was wrong. I knew how wrong I was when I saw Christine's brother Matt standing outside (a place where I was soon to be). Matt had a look on his face that was somewhere above annoyed and somewhere below contempt. I turned at the sound of Christine's other brother Joe behind me. His expression was not below contempt. Slowly, my awakening mind put things together: the baskets, the holiday, the outdoors, and Matt and Joe's pained expressions. We were hunting eggs.

Since then, I have been on a few egg hunts in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for me, Christine's early morning egg hunts are completely dependent on the Easter Bunny hiding the eggs at ungodly hours. Since the Easter Bunny is usually Christine's father, this year things were a little different! I hid some eggs in the apartment at a more reasonable time of 9am while Christine was cooking breakfast and she found them all!


We hope you are finding everything you are looking for this Easter and we're sorry we can't be with you. We'll be thinking of you while we go to church, have Easter lunch and probably fall asleep on the couch later tonight.


Happy Hunting!
Justin and Christine