Ostern in Österreich!

In English that's "Easter in Austria!"

Easter morning began with a time change as we sprung (sprang?) ahead.  I'm still not sure why Day Light Savings Time is weeks later here (now we're once again 6 hours ahead of EST) but it was wonderful to see the clock read nearly 7am by the time the sunshine came radiating through our windows!

Keeping up with the Ridge Easter tradition, our morning began with an Easter basket hunt.

Like my mom used to do when we were younger (before my dad began the insanely hard, contract-signing required hunt for the hidden baskets sometimes still not found by the time we had to go to Mass) - the kids had a string lined with candy to lead them to their baskets.  My mom used to tie the candy to the string, luckily I didn't bother with that and just scattered some along the path.  But, apparently just like my siblings and I used to do, Ellie stopped at the first candy and didn't want to go any farther.

Eventually she did make it all the way to her hidden Easter basket and the huge chocolate bunny that awaited her.

Retelling this story later in the day, Sr. Faustina reflected on how often we do this with God's gifts...we stop or settle for the "little treats" along the way, unable to imagine the greater gift that awaits us just ahead!

I was just thankful we convinced Ellie only to eat the ears and no one threw up before Mass.

Oh yeah, Francis was there too -- the Easter Bunny left him some opened rice cakes and a not-too-brown banana.

Then Brian headed down to church early to rehearse with some singers for Mass -- they all did a great job leading us in music!  While I got these two into their Easter outfits (thank you, Mary and Jess, for their clothes)!

The days leading up to Easter were cold and rainy.  On Good Friday we hiked with some of the students in town and Fr. Matt - up the mountain directly behind our house, which has the Stations of the Cross.  The sky was dark and our path was muddy.  The kids are getting bigger and thus were a heavier load to carry.  It was a great way to spend the hours between noon and 3pm (it tooks us about 2 hours round trip).  

Saturday was also overcast and cool.

Contrast that with Easter Sunday -- it was sunny all day and was in the 60s!  The sunshine was pouring through the huge windows above the altar during Mass.  You couldn't have asked for better weather!

After Mass we had a big lunch with the other faculty and staff in town.  Brian Francis loved spending time with the "big" boys!

And Ellie loved hunting for eggs outside after we ate!

Here's to hoping the next 50 days of Easter are as glorious!

Frohe Ostern!