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April 14, 2004 It seems to have become a tradition for me to write about our Easter. It is still “our” holiday, the time when the weather is usually finally good enough for the more distant siblings to make it out to the farm. This year was actually a very quiet Easter, probably the first one we’ve had. We were missing Brenda, and there were no extra kids or animals this time. But mostly it was due to the kids growing up a bit. Less tearing around and motor noises, more teenage heckling. Four of the cousins are teens/almost teens—Jen and Shad are 14, Sarah just turned 13, and Amanda is almost 13. That left only the “little” boys—Meshach, who will be 11 in July, and Michael, a precocious 9½-year-old. Nancy and crew showed up a couple hours after I did Friday, and LeAnn and crew showed up late Friday night. Of course we stayed up and visited, and Shad and Sarah got me to tell the story of our ghost. Quoting from our conversation: Shad: “I’d shoot it with my BB gun.” Nancy: “That wouldn’t do any good—it’s already dead. You’d just make a hole in the wall.” Mom: “You’d better not make a hole in the wall!” LeAnn: “Wouldn’t that make it a ‘holey’ ghost?” We had our Easter on Saturday, because LeAnn and crew had to leave by 1:30. We managed to cram it all into the morning, and even be eating a simple ham dinner by 11:30. The nice thing about our Easter is it has always been more relaxed, and the traditions change as circumstances change. Last year Mom happily turned over hiding Easter baskets to the kids. Jen and Shad hide the baskets for the other four kids, and Sarah and Amanda hide for Jen and Shad. As you can imagine, the four older kids have a bit of a competition going! However, some things never change. This year Mom made three pans of cornflake birds’ nest stuff instead of two, and, again, every scrap went. However, we learned for the first time that it actually was intended as a candy or dessert, and Mom had invented the birds’ nest use for it! She went to find the recipe in the cookbook and couldn’t find it because it’s been “birds’ nest” for so long she’d forgotten what it was really called! After finding their Easter baskets, the kids colored eggs. This year, for the first time, they didn’t get bored and leave some for the adults. They were barely dry and they were off hiding them (yes, even the two 14-year-olds!), with the traditional admonishments: Mom/Grandma: “Count how many you are hiding and make sure you find every single one!!!” One of the kids: “And no hiding eggs in Grandpa’s slipper!” Then, since it was a gorgeous day, even if cloudy, the four older ones took off with the rifles, pistols, and BB guns for target practice. Shad had a foot in a cast, but it didn’t seem to slow him down any. The two little boys whined for a bit at the “eleven or older” gun rule, then took off outside to play with the dog and do assorted little boy things. The adults sat around and visited till it was time for LeAnn to round up the kids and head out. After they left, things quieted down some more. The rest of the weekend involved lots of games and a couple 500-piece jigsaw puzzles, an ordinary weekend of hanging out. Not that our Easter weekends are ever ordinary, by most standards… |