Resurrection Weekend

(I know this blog is a week late, but Easter weekend in Duhok was worth documenting!)

We started our weekend celebration on Good Friday with worship with our Church.  Our church meets weekly and consists of about 15ish other believers.  This Sunday was special because we had a "band" that led us in worship.  Andy on the guitar, a guy on the clarinet, gal on the recorder, and Mary on the piano.  It was great.  We also were able to partake in the Lord's supper together, and listen to a message prepared by one of the members.  During this time, another member led children's time and did resurrection eggs with the 7 children that attend.  It takes everyone to contribute on a week to week basis,  taking turns to lead different things.  A great picture of the body!  We ended our time with a oh-so-yummy potluck!  The Bishops be lovin' them a potluck!  I forgot my camera so sorry I don't have any pictures :o(.

The next day we invited our neighbors over to color eggs (I found food coloring here!) They were first timers to color Easter Eggs, and got to talk with them about the meaning of Easter as well. 

 Zander sorta did one egg. He did a little bit of coloring, then I helped him dip the egg. But mostly he just sat in his high chair eating a couple of eggs that had cracked.  I still think he was having fun!   

 We went shopping a couple days before, and I felt like we scored big-time when we found a few children's books in English! We also put a few pieces of candy, and some of the Easter eggs in Z man's basket.  He was excited to see that these were for him!

 This picture totally cracks me up.  Can you tell Andy and I were trying to get him to pose?  His sweet little hands holding that egg so gently :)

 While we were waiting for the egg bake to cook, Andy read him his new books.  The thing that looks ginormious in the foreground of this picture is my version of "Casey's Raspberry Cheese Flip" Have you had them?... Oh they are OH SO SO SO YUMMY! Very low in calories :) or... not.

After breakfast we took an Easter basket to our friends that had a picture Zander colored, a couple books in it, candy, cookies, eggs, and small toys.  It was fun sharing with them. 

 We took little baskets to our other 2 closest neighbors that just had cookies and eggs in them.  But enjoyed a long visit with our Assysian (basically Catholic) Christian neighbors. They don't speak much English so they had to show us what their tradition for Easter was. Pacha.  I was a bit surprised when they had the largest pot I have ever seen, FULL of cow intestines and pieces of the stomach sewed together with rice stuffed inside.  I tried to avoid trying it, but I did take one bite. Andy on the other hand felt like he should eat a HUGE bowl of it.  He still feels ok.

Later that afternoon we had the neighbor kids over for a game of volleyball.  Always a fun event :)

 We ended our day at the ZOO! This was the first time we were there. Zander loved it.  Especially the monkey's.  

They also had some slides and swings there. That are not regulation incline! If you go full speed down these suckers, you may die. You need to slow yourself down by gripping your feet a little bit on the edges. Zander couldn't go down this one by himself, but then we wouldn't have gotten the privilege to see Andy go down it.  :)

It was a fun weekend! :)