Baptized

An Easter morning under gray skies, cut sometimes by sunshine. And a baptism for Linnea. The family and Grandma Combs arrived for the 8:30 service with some time to spare before the prelude. Linnea looked very sweet that morning, and was joined by Mom and Dad and another family with their baby at the front of the church next to Pastor Sinai, who gave her a hug.
It was unfortunate timing that Puck, who suddenly took interest in another baby several rows behind him, would decide to be very loud in the moments right before Linnea’s baptism.
He scrunched his eyes shut and said very loudly, “Where’d baby go? Where’d baby go? Where’d baby go?”
Then he popped open his eyes, and exclaimed, “There he is!”
Collette whisked him out of the service so that there might be no further distractions, and peaked through the crack of the double doors to see the water sprinkled on Linnea’s head.
Later in the afternoon, the Combs family arrived, and Dad picked up Grandma Snicketts to also join them.
It was the quietest Easter they had ever had. Just the sixteen of them; that was it. They shared Iceland pictures and Aunt Petunia passed around her photo albums of Hawaii, as Carrie brought out her photo books newly printed of Egypt, South America, etc.
Aunt Petunia had spent a week in February with her three sisters, swimming with dolphins, exploring the beaches, and watching sunsets off the strangely green islands. She wanted to go back again soon.
There was an Easter egg hunt for Puck out in the wet green yard. Linnea guided him around as Puck happily placed bright colored eggs in his basket.
“We didn’t put any candy in them,” Mom said.
“Don’t need a sugar crash,” said Collette.
“Oh, what a rip-off, Mom,” Aunt Petunia joked.
Then, although Linnea was too old to hunt Easter eggs, she was given her Easter gift, two buckets of moon sand, one of blue, and one of green. Puck helped her play with these after dessert of cookies and cream mousse and strawberry shortcake had been served while the boys laughed hilariously over “epic fail” clips on the Internet.