No Chocolate B-log.

Who didn't get an egg? - ME!

Outrageous :(

Anyway - went to breakfast at the hall. Some very virtuous types went to the 7:30 Sunrise Service on the common, but not us this year anyway. K once had a very bad experience with a horse on the common one year and the memory still looms large. He might blog about it one day - he keeps threatening to start one!. We were advised that there were no horses this year, so Keith is not the only one who remembers.

It was good to share with people we don't normally have breakfast with as well as the ones we normally do share with.This time last year we were in Florida, sharing breakfast round a pool.

The morning meeting was based on rolling the stone away and my dad had built a huge tomb with a stone to roll away and with some great sound effects it was quite authentic.

What really blessed me though actually happened after the meeting had finished ( apologies to Mjs Mike and Wendy Caffull who lead really great meetings, thank you!) Some of the children were really excited about going into the 'tomb' to have a look around and came out again laughing, as they do.I just had this great feeling of how excited they were to esentially experience the death and ressurection of Jesus - not that it would have crossed their minds. Thoughts of baptism crossed my mind though - then went away again!

We had my mum and dad for lunch and it was good to spend some quality time with them - when we could get a word in.

Played Elyse at Drafts a couple of times and Joe at Chess 3 times - he beat me everytime. I have no strategy that's the problem, I just 'play'. However, I feel really driven now to nail this and so when Joe gets in from Youth Fellowship I'm going to challenge him to a dua - I mean game. Not that I'm obsessed or anything.

Easter, as we touched on in the meeting this evening, really is a time for remembering.

The hymns evoke an emotional response, like a smell - they can transport you back to a previous Easter. I think it's because unlike Christmas, the songs are only sung on one day - not spread out like Christmas Carols, so it's intense.

This year,I was transported back to Ipswich Citadel, sitting next to or rather snuggled up to my grandma who had been a professional singer in her day and remember feeling the hymns vibrating through me as she belted them out. I can recall where we used to sit in the balcony, while mum and dad were in the band and songsters - I was only about 2 or 3 at the time, as we moved away to London when I was four, nearly five.

Anyway, back to the real world.

He is Risen. That's for real, for ever and for keeps and maybe one day my children will be transported back to this Easter Day and remember the tomb that grandad built, and with the experience of years feel that it was an inportant part of their faith journey to have experienced the before and after.

Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus!