At least we were only in three parts of the country this year, not four. In the past few years, Walt has gone to Santa Barbara to be with his mother and sister, I have gone to my mother's to be with her (and sometimes Ned), and Norm and his wife have had the big Easter for her family and which of our family can come. In the years when Brianna would spend Easter with us (last year was one), I can't remember exactly what we did...I know Ned and I were at Norm's, and I'm pretty sure my mother wasn't. Maybe she was at her stepson's.
I know that this is the norm for most couples with adult, married children, but we have just been very fortunate that we have been able to be together for all holidays for as many years as we have, and I'm still adjusting to having no structure for our holidays any more.
So this year, Ned came to our house and drove with us to my mother's, where he and Walt had a short visit before going to Walt's brother's house. His sister and her husband had driven up from Santa Barbara the day before. There was apparently dinner for 30 at that house, while my mother and I had dinner for 2 because she feels lost in big crowds and didn't want to go to the other dinner. Tom, Laurel and Bri were with her family. Jeri, of course was in Boston, but called to wish us a happy Easter.
Back "in the day," Walt and I would hide eggs for the kids in the back yard. After the first couple of years, they got smart and scouted out eggs from the upstairs window before going downstairs for the actual hunt. They always knew there was one on top of the monkey bars.
I always made some sort of special bread for Easter, sometimes a challah, or hot cross buns, or something yeasty that I never made at other times of the year, and we would have a special breakfast after we all went to Mass together.
And then in the afternoon either I'd fix dinner to have here, or we'd all go to either Walt's mother's house or my mother's house for an Easter dinner.
When the kids were really little, before we moved to Davis, I made up Easter baskets for each one of them, with candy and a stuffed Easter bunny in them. I remember one banner year, when Jeri was 2 and Ned was still a baby, when I found two very large bunnies on sale for really cheap.
Of course there was also the very bad, awful, horrible Easter when everyone was so excited to go to an Easter egg hunt, but the real estate agent told us at the last minute that while we were out there would be an open house and we had to clean up for company before we left. The kids found no eggs and Jeri grumbled, as we left the park, "we would havefound something if you hadn't spent so much time cleaning house." I still cringe about that one.
I still miss those days when we were all together and everybody was excited to be celebrating Easter, the religious and the secular. I hope Brianna and the new baby have lots and lots of those kinds family celebrations as they grow up.
Easter 1975
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