Of all the years that Orlando’s been playing professional basketball in Mexico, we’ve spent a lot of holidays and special occasions there. I quickly learned that you can find pumpkin pie at Costco for Thanksgiving, and don’t try going out for New Year’s Eve because everyone spends it with their family. This year, however, marked the first time we experienced Easter in Mexico, and it was full of both surprises and familiar traditions.
As it turned out, Orlando had a game Saturday night in Monterrey, and we found out late that his team flight wasn’t scheduled until Sunday evening. We both felt terrible that he would miss the majority of our celebrations, but a quick search showed an early morning flight was available so we jumped at the chance. Similar to how he made it just in time for Cora’s 3rd birthday, Orlando grabbed a plane at 4 in the morning, we picked him up from the airport, and drove straight to our Easter Sunday church service. The only thing he ended up missing was opening Easter baskets in the morning, and quite a bit of sleep.
The church we’ve attended a few times here in Cancun is completely in Spanish, so it’s so inspiring to see how they translate familiar tunes, and the descriptions they use to demonstrate God’s love for us. After church, we headed home for lunch and a quick nap, and then it was off to our friends’ house for an Easter egg hunt and dying extravaganza. I have to admit I didn’t fully think through having eight babies and toddlers around open bowls of food dye, but thank goodness we made it through without any major disasters. I also picked up this AMAZING tip to use a whisk instead of spoons for holding your eggs while you dye them! It made it so much easier for little hands to manage them, and the moms didn’t have to worry QUITE as much about any accidents.
While we dyed eggs, the Dads were downstairs hiding all the eggs for the hunt, and all the kids were pros by the time we were done. It’s so amusing to see different ages in a egg hunt and how they each react to the spectacle. Cora was scooping up eggs left and right, whereas Issa just thought it was hilarious to watch Cora. Ha! Here in Mexico, the Easter Bunny and easter egg hunts are not really a big deal at all, in fact most people I talked to thought I was insane talking about some rabbit who brings children candy. So we were so happy to have our small group of American/European friends who were willing to get together and celebrate our traditions as well.
The whole egg hunt lasted probably ten minutes, but the kids were able to play together in the breezy sunshine for another couple of hours. I’m truly going to miss this stage of childhood when Cora and Issa are equally excited to do these things. I know it won’t last forever, and there will be a day when they tell me they’re too old to pick up plastic eggs anymore, so I try to soak it up while I can. Of course, I know there’s an expiration date on being able to dress them in matching dresses, too, so I took advantage there as well! 😉
For snacks we had a whole spread of everyone’s favorite Easter treats. Our American hostess Emily made an angel food cake from scratch, and Alexandra from Romania made a traditional chocolate bread roll. We learned about customs in the Phillipines from Bridget, and Gabriela taught us how to say words in Slovakian. It was truly a global gathering, and that’s probably one of my favorite things about Cancun. People have come here from all over the world, but they can always find something in common. Like desserts. 😉
But the real MVP this Easter goes to this guy. Once again he proves that he will do anything for his family. He’ll sacrifice sleep, time, energy, just to see his children smile. He picked me to be his wife, but I’m even more blessed he’s the father of my babies. I don’t have to drag him to church or convince him that Easter is a special day. He knows it’s a time for remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and trying to live our lives to honor that.
Hope you all had a beautiful Easter as well, let me know what you did in the comments!
XO,
A
