This is how we do it.

On Easter morning, some people like to see what the bunny brought.  Some head directly outside to look for eggs.  Some head to church.  Some throw a big ol' ham in the oven.  And some of us head to the airport to pick up our just-flown-in shipment of crawfish.

No, that's not the only bag.  Where do you think I was raised?!


Yeah, holidays are a little different around the Windham-Hendrickson home now.  But even before the earthquake, we did things a little bit different.  This was our 4th Annual Easter Crawfish Extravaganza.

Now, we DO check our Easter baskets.  We DO look for eggs.  But, we do it a day early with Mommy on odd-numbered years.

 

We're cool with it.  The "new" schedule is old hat.  We are officially split-house pros at this point.

 And we still share our goodies with Aunt Amanda because she is awesome and rules, and would do ANYTHING for us!  She might be the only person on the planet Teague would share his chocolate with.

Anyway...

We go to church sometimes.

We spend Easter with friends and family we love always.

But we do NOT have ham for Easter.

We murder our Easter food the good ole fashioned way.  We boil it.

Well, first we play with it...

 Then we pick out the ones who didn't survive the trip (aka the straight tails)

Then we prepare to purge them...

Then we teach our California brethren what purging is...

 Then we pick a favorite...

And pay our respects to the dead... (because they don't pinch and we can be much braver)

 Sometimes you just have to take a pic with the biggest dead one who is missing one claw...

Then it's officially time to purge... Which really is a foul process.

Now it's time to drop the first batch.

And when you pull em' out, you gotta season...

 After a few tastes of the first batch, (and maybe a beer) it's time for crawfish-posing time (If you haven't seen this before, I will be sure to post a pic from our first Easter extravaganza where a crawfish drove a pirate ship!).  Sorry dude, but you just look so good against that lemon backdrop!

Then grown-ups have to pick a favorite and take a picture with one of their besties.  Even if you STILL haven't made it to the shower because you just got back from Canada the night before.

 And he is threatening your crawfish with his crawfish.

Then he makes your crawfish try to battle.

But they mutually decide to play dead so we don't throw them in the pot.

 Then Ray decides to put on a crawfish puppet show, which kinda rules.

 But is not at all scary.

Then it's time for the table dump.

 And watching your truly Southern mom don plastic gloves so her manicure doesn't get messed up.

 Your best friend sucks the heads...

Your 7 and 4-year-old follow your lead...

Then you realize they are following Nana's lead and wearing gloves, which is slightly embarrassing...

But you remember that every year, Teague picks one crawfish to set free in the pond...

 Because he sincerely believes that "Even if you only save one, it's important."

And we eat.

 And eat.

 And eat.

 And celebrate.

 And toast.

 And we are grateful.

Because sometimes, when you don't get get your kids on Easter day, you get them the day before.  And that just happens to be the 30th of March.  Which happens to be the day you gave birth to your second son.

And even though you already threw an outrageous party with a homemade cake for him 2 weeks earlier, you get this...

 A Carvel cake...

 A beautiful, genuine, smile...

 Excitement...

 Joy....

 Bare feet...

Your lovely blond locks almost catching fire...

The realization that you are FINALLY 4!

 You can lick the whole cake if you want to.

Or bite it.

And you know that your Papa has given it his all to make this day special.  And actually, he gives it his all every day of your life to make it that way.