Easter

On Easter eve, we had an Easter party (that's what Otto called it). We had the Whites, the missionaries, and the Packers over for an Easter egg hunt, a barbecue and to watch the first session of the LDS General Conference.

It was drizzling rain all day, but we hid and hunted the eggs anyway. Darrell and Lori White kept an eye on Ingrid and helped her hold tightly to one egg for the duration of the hunt. Aksel found a giant egg and then pried it open and lost interest in everything else. Otto was just so happy he finally got to put eggs in his basket. We let them eat as much as they wanted and then the leftovers disappeared after they went to bed.

On Easter Sunday, we caught up on LDS General Conference, went to Jardin de Circulation (a park made of miniature roads and stoplights for bikes), took a family nap, went on a long walk through the Petrusse Valley with the Packers, ate Easter Sunday Dinner at the Packer's, and watched more conference.

On Easter Monday (a national holiday in Luxembourg), we had Ryan Gilstrap come over and watch the boys so we could go downtown to Eemaischen -- a century-old festival and Luxembourg tradition that gets its name from the biblical city of Emmaus.

We bundled Ingrid up and put her on my back and had no shame in eating a crêpe, a Luxringer (hot dog), and gromperekichelchers (potato cakes) at 10 am.

The real attraction was the bird-shaped flutes made out of clay called Péckvillchen. We carefully selected a couple (male and female) from artist Romy Weydert, and a small blue bird for Ingrid. We walked around watching dancers, strange men who could whistle really well and admiring all of the pottery.

As soon as we returned and took Ryan home, Otto requested him to come back. As soon as we had put Aksel and Ingrid down for a nap, Ben and Otto headed back downtown to see more clay birds, eat more fair food, meet up with friends, and buy birds for Otto and Aksel.

It was a great weekend. I love the simplicity of trying to teach children about the atonement, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love listening to Conference and making a lengthy list of things I need to fix in my own life. I love the Packers. I love begging friends (Madi & Lori White) to bring back plastic Easter eggs from the states so I can have an Easter egg hunt in the rain for my American munchkins.

And I love my Luxembourgish birds and can't wait for Easter 2016.