Easter... finally a peaceful and happy holiday!!

After 10 years of holidays being a stressful, miserable catastrophe, I finally got to host the perfect holiday.... almost! The only thing that could have made it better would have been my boyfriend's daughter being able to make it. She was supposed to be here to open her basket (second photo) and go on the easter egg hunt. 3 hours after she was supposed to be here, her mom texted us that they were just leaving their Easter. She has yet to open her basket & missed the egg hunt, but the rest of the day was so good.

My nieces (7&8) got to come with my sister, and loved their baskets. We originally took them to the park under the premise that they'd be doing Easter community service by helping to pick up doggy doo. As you can see by the fifth photo, they were less than thrilled. We finally told them that their bags were really for an egg hunt and that the eggs had candy and money in them. You can see the confusion, excitement, and surprise in the last photo.

All of my food turned out perfectly (thank god, I was up since 8am cooking.... specifically hand picking peppers and onions out of my potatoes seeing as I waited to the last minute to buy the food and they were out of plain potatoes). The best part is, everyone got along (including my parents, who are going through a divorce, and excluding the part where the girls threw things at eachother's heads over a phone cord) for the most part, and I didn't even melt down when my mother forgot the extra table and chairs and my dad forgot the camera :-) . I figured it all out and finally had a happy holiday in my beautiful home with my beautiful family.

Somebody say Hallelujah with me, because it only took ten years and 6 dozen holidays to finally get one to go this well 🙌🏼🙌🏼

The very last one is my boyfriend & his daughter out for ice cream with me yesterday since we didn't get to take photos of her today and she's too cute not to include.