A Beautiful Day

What an Easter it has been! Despite the cold rainy weather today has turned out to be a wonderful and fun day. Easter has never really been a major holiday for me. As a child I did enjoy the Easter egg hunts and candy, but it was always overshadowed with the time that I was forced to spend in church. Even from an early age I was never particularly religious. I did what I was asked to do by my parents and my school teachers. I say school teachers as I attended Catholic school for grades 1 – 12. But I never really believed a whole lot in all the things in which I was asked to believe. Throughout grade school I sang in the boy’s choir at the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. As the seat of the Greensburg Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, Blessed Sacrament Cathedral was the venue for long hours of liturgical ceremony in the weeks leading up to Easter. On Holy Thursday and Good Friday the masses and observance would go on for hours. I distinctly remember my disdain of having to spend such long hours singing in church during the beautiful afternoons and evenings of spring. Therefore, I was never quite into Easter as it just seemed to mean long hours in church for me. As I got older and developed my own personal beliefs about spirituality, the importance of Easter became even less pronounced. It became a day like any other Sunday. Today my thoughts on Easter have changed some what. My views on spirituality continue to be the same; however I have come to see this as a holiday that is about love and joy. The day has become about family and friends – whether they gather at the table with us or whether they have journeyed on ahead of us. It is a day to find love in your heart and embrace all of those around you. To me the key point of this day is to get together with as many family and friends as possible and enjoy the time together with an enormous and wonderful brunch or dinner. It is a time to sit and talk and talk and talk, enjoying the company of all those who are with you while remember those who used to share the table with you. Our day didn’t start until rather late as I was very tired from preparing food last night and then hiding all the Easter eggs and presents that needed to be hid. I didn’t go to bed until 2:00AM last night. We got up around 8:30AM and once I got the dogs fed, Zack quickly embarked into his Easter egg hunt. Given the weather, I didn’t do the traditional Easter egg hunt outdoors. Instead it was spread all over our living room, dining room and entrance way to the house. Zack ran hither and fro as he searched this way and that for every Easter egg he could find. In the end he found them all and was quite amazed by his haul. (I never put the dyed hard boiled Easter eggs out or the dogs would eat them. Instead I have the plastic eggs that I fill with all kinds of treats and prizes.) We spent a good hour on the hunt and examining all the prizes that Zack got. He was quite excited for the small prizes he got – Moon Sand, Pixos and Pokemon cards and he wanted to play with them right way. It was Easter so of course I let him play. He also got a ton of new books from the Easter Bunny which is really good as he has read just about every book in this house. (Zack's Easter basket post carnage. My mom made this basket for Zack the last year that she was alive.) After the Easter egg hunt, I quickly had to get my egg soufflé into the oven to cook as I expected it to take 2 hours and we were to be at Tim and Celinde’s by 11:30AM. The soufflé was still cooking when we left the house, so I had to come back and get it around Noon.

(My egg souffle - it didn't even fall!)

We spent pretty much the entire day at Tim and Celinde’s house with lots of other friends. The kids were wild and crazy as they were pumped full of sugar from all their Easter treats. The adults worked hard to ignore the rough housing, playing and the inevitable arguing that took place. We shared a great brunch together and talked a lot. It was really good to spend the time in the company of those who we care about. It’s been a couple of years since we have been able to celebrate like this so it felt especially good to feel a sense of normalcy return. I will admit – I ate a ton! I am still down about 8 pounds from my medical adventure in March but I am sure I gained a good bit of it back today with the quantity of food I consumed. Everybody just brought such good dishes and Tim and Celinde did a wonderful job coordinating and preparing everything as usual. (My pictures that I have posted for today's entry aren't that great. I forgot to take my camera and iPhone to Tim and Celinde's so I didn't capture any of the brunch - which stinks.) Zack and I are now home and taking some time to relax. The Z-man is engrossed in one of his new books – The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and I am writing. We are both happy and content from a fun and wonderful day.

(Zack reading the Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.)

As this Easter Sunday comes to an end, I hope everyone has had a wonderful day and you have all found peace, love and contentment within yourselves on this special day. Be happy to be alive. Be happy for those around you. Be happy for all the love and contentment in your life. Just be happy.

PS - Today I have also updated the Caringbridge site at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/pattykromer .