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- It was now Easter 1998 at our house in Meadow View Cottage, and our family’s tradition has always been to enjoy a nice breakfast before Mass – here’s our dining room table set for breakfast with my wife’s many decorating touches.
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- A vase of daises decorates our kitchen table along with a few small Easter touches – our holiday traditions have always been very important to our family – the open doorway leads into the dining room next door.
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- We were enjoying our life in Bridge Street Hamlet, and this would be our third spring in rural Suffolk, immersed in the countryside and flavors of a time and place that acknowledged the present…and celebrated the past.
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- I’ve always enjoyed seeing decorated Easter eggs, symbols of the new life that is promised us at Easter – and here my wife has hung a number of Easter eggs from a wreath in our foyer under our staircase.
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- In these quiet moments of reflection, the stress and strains of modern life and external events just fades away, replaced with the calmer waters of tradition, commitment, shared values and memories.
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- Family traditions arise over time from shared experiences and memories, created season by season throughout the years, by keeping that which strengthens and reinforces, and letting go of the things that don’t.
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- Our kitchen window decorated for Easter, with small touches that are welcome reminders of the season in unexpected moments – my wife made the blue and white curtains and the bow, but these lace curtains were purchased and weren’t handmade.
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- David’s ready to enjoy my wife’s homemade Easter cake while I take this picture – coffee & cake in the late afternoon is one of our favorite family traditions ever since I first moved to Germany in 1983!
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- Our two, young parakeets were welcome additions to our family in 1998, and a source of joy for us with their individual antics, mannerisms and personalities – I gave them flying lessons when we first purchased them, using hand held perches in our upstairs bathroom.
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- The largest Easter egg hanging under my wife’s hand-crocheted lampshade, is a goose egg that David colored for Kindergarten during the time we lived in Monzelfeld, Germany, between 1989 and 1991.
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- It’s nice for me to pause and reflect on these photos of the time we lived in England, prior to retiring and moving to Keene, NH, in 2001 – our time spent in both Germany and England were very special years for our family.
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- Posting my pictures over the past few years has been a nice stroll down memory lane for me, from my childhood years up to this time in 1998 – I have one more photo post following this one, and then I’ll switch gears and begin posting my writings that tell the story behind my pictures!
