One year ago, Easter Sunday was a snowy, blustery day which Jay and I celebrated with Zack and Sara, who were not yet engaged. We had a lovely time and so did everyone else, in their separate places.
This year, Easter was so sunny and hot that the sweet knee length jacket I bought specifically to wear for the Holiday was too hot. We ended up in shorts.
One thing virus mania hasn't effected has been the weather. For the second year in a row, Spring came early in the upper Midwest. The weather has been so mild that Jay and I got out all our deck furniture on Palm Sunday and planned to have our Easter Sunday meal out on the deck.
Not only did everyone come, including my Mom, but a few extras dropped by for fun as well. Jay's brother Tom and his wife, Kelly didn't eat with us but did drop by for a nice visit in the back yard. Some other cousins also showed up, including TinTin, who was born during the quarantine and celebrated his first birthday before I got a chance to meet him.
Ty and Megan had taken the crew to the Free State of South Dakota to spend Easter at the farm but Katie and Adam brought BoopityBoop, so it was not a grand child free Easter, for which I was grateful.
Jay smoked a ham. It was part of the pig we bought last year from a local farm that had to unload all it's meat quickly during the quarantine. The meat has been spectacular. I hope the farm survived.
We also had devilled eggs, sliced cucumbers, fruit salad, a tomato and avacado salad and all the fixin's for ham sandwiches. Sara brought her chocolate torte and Josie brought lemon cheesecake bars that were fantastic. There was plenty of Easter candy to go around. Someone forgot to take home their chocolate bunnies, so Jay and I (okay I) ended up with extras. The weather was gorgeous and very warm (in the low 80s) so were were outside most of the day.
At one point, I saw the twins, who are now four years old, go into the house. I knew no one was inside and went in myself to see if they needed any help, say in the bathroom.
They weren't in the bathroom. Or any other room. I checked the stairway, where the chalk board wall is, to see if they were drawing. They were not. I ran upstairs to make sure they hadn't taken advantage of all the adults being outside to snoop in my office, where they know they are not supposed to go (too many dangerous things up there). They were not upstairs. At this point, I got nervous. My house is not big. There aren't any places where two four year olds dressed in matching pink tulle can disappear. The front door was still locked. I called their names. Nothing.
I called their names again.
Nothing.
I ran outside and asked if anyone had seen them. I was told they were in the house. I went inside and called their names a third time.
"We're hiding!" one of them called from somewhere nearby.
"We're hiding in your bedroom!" her sister called.
"Am I supposed to be looking for you?" I asked.
"YES!" they squealed gleefully.
It's a good game but I like it better when they tell me we're playing.
After a few rounds of hide and seek (they hid behind my bed every time) we returned to the backyard and they asked me to push them in the big swing. As I pushed them, I mentioned the last time they slept over, didn't actually sleep a wink, and ended up taking a nap in that same swing.
"and then what happened?" Boop asked.
"I don't remember." I shrugged. She waited a beat, then said "Good story."
Jack Benny didn't have better timing than Boop.
HAPPY EASTER.