I'm taking a break....
The eggs are dyed and drying. The cupcakes are out of the oven. When they're cool enough, I'll frost them. White frosting, coconut dyed green, Jelly Belly “eggs” and little plastic bunnies. Oh, and pipe cleaners shaped into basket handles. Too cute.
Then, all I have left to do is make the egg casserole for brunch tomorrow. And fix supper for tonight. It's been a very busy day, indeed. I even found time to OD on jelly beans....
I have a heart full of memories of Easters gone by....long ago. Saturdays just like this one: decorating eggs, cooking and baking all those special dishes, and, long, long ago, staying up half the night to finish sewing dresses for my daughter and me. Little babies in their crisp, new Easter outfits, ready to go to church on Easter morning. They were wiggly in church, barely able to contain their excitement.
Later in the day, family would gather for an Easter egg hunt and Sunday dinner. Sometimes, at my house, sometimes out at the ranch, where the kids' paternal grandparents lived. It was always a fun day.
And now, those little ones are all grown up and involved in their own lives. With all the blended families and “steps” and “grands” it's hard to keep them all straight. But we manage, somehow. And, like everything else in life, things change.
That sweet little toddler, my first grandbaby, isn't even a teenager anymore. At twenty, he is seriously considering enlisting in the Air Force. He talked to me about it at length the last time he was here. He knows he can do whatever he wants, but he wanted Grandma to approve. And I do...
There may be a crowd here tomorrow, or it might just be the two of us. It doesn't really matter: no matter where I am, or where they are, we are together. All those memories, all those wonderful times, all those special people.....they're all here, in my heart.
And so, as usual, I have fixed enough food to feed an army. The table is decorated. Fresh roses, cut from my mother's rose bushes, are here and there throughout the house. The Easter basket is on the table, with a chocolate bunny, M&Ms, plastic Easter eggs filled with jelly beans, and other little goodies.
There are colorful dyed eggs to be hidden and found. The lawns are mowed and manicured. And the welcome mat is out, as it always is....
Happy Easter, my friends!
Cali
