It’s been a great week and not just because we’re celebrating the 2019 anniversary of Jesus conquering death and washing away our sins with his own blood, although that’s pretty cool, you have to admit.
Last week’s painting came out quite well
I’m pleased with it. I had a blast painting the grapefruit. Mom handed me the pitcher as I was leaving her place on Tuesday. She pulled it out of her armoir and handed it to me, saying “here, do this one!” It was really hard to paint.
Rick, my fearless leader said “tell your mom ‘thanks a lot’ and never to do that again.”
He was kidding. He loves my Mom. Everyone does. Well, okay, not everyone; only everyone who’s ever met her.
I was in the shop earlier in the week and heard that a particular customer was up front, picking up her finished ornaments. I’d been curious about her for years so I went up front and asked if she lived on 40thand Queen? She took one look at me and said “You’re not a Hubbell, are you?!”
Sure enough, she’s the same gal who has the dubious fortune of having bought the house I grew up in. In the dozen or so years that she’s lived there, most members of my family have been caught staring up at the place from the front sidewalk, or even wandering through the yard, trying to pretend they’re not peaking in the windows. It’s probably not just us: most of our friends have stories that are best illustrated if one is familiar with the place in which they occurred. Being a kind and understanding woman, whenever the current owner and resident of the place catches us, she invites us in to see how the old pile is doing.
That’s what happens when you live in a 120 year old Victorian that housed an enormous family for a third of those years. She couldn’t be more gracious about allowing us to indulge our proprietary nostalgia once in a while.
When I assured her I was, in fact, a Hubbell, she demanded to know why I hadn’t stopped by the house. I told her I would next Christmas time, so I could see all the needlepoint ornaments I’d designed for her over the years.
Easter was wonderful! The weather cooperated; instead of following the forecast and raining all day, it was warm under blue, partly cloudy skies all day. Jay got up early and went to the sunrise mass downtown at the Basilica. Zack and I went to the 10:30 Mass, where we were joined by Josie. Afterwards, we went back to the house, where Jay was busy preparing brunch for the whole lot of us.
Katie, Adam and BoopityBoop arrived in time for a lovely brunch of all the typical Easter fixing’s; eggs, bacon, sausage, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, hash browns, mimosas, coffee and chocolate bunnies. After eating, Adam hid eggs in the back yard for the girls to hunt down. They understood the game immediately and were diligent little egg hunters.
At nine months pregnant, Megan had to pace herself so Ty’s crew didn’t try to make it into town for brunch but they all came to my sister’s house for dinner in the afternoon. At Katie’s house, there was enough food to feed an army. She had two honey baked hams with all the fixing’s. We brought along fruit salad and devilled eggs and there wasn’t enough space in her kitchen for all the food.
Katie, MJ and I manage to get a walk around Lake Harriet in during the afternoon.
There was another egg hunt involving BoopityBoop, Xena, Babalouie, Nanners, Bean, Tot and Charlie. I think Johnny was too busy watching Jesus Christ, Superstar to get involved.
Punkin and John G., Woody, Kathy, Andy and Vi, Hattie, Gus, Meg, Molly and Finnie were all there, in addition to our whole crew yet all those people could hardly make a dent in all the food.
After the party, at home that evening, I ate an entire 7 oz chocolate bunny while watching the Ten Commandments.
Happy Easter!
On Tuesday, Jay and I headed south to join Babalouie for his preschool’s “special person’s day”. He’d invited me a week or so ago and I brought Coach along as a surprise. He was delighted! It was a fun hour: first the kids sang several songs for their guests, then we all split up into sections. Our section went upstairs to an arts and crafts room where we had snacks and made jewelry. Babalouie told everyone who would listen that his Nana would make really good jewelry, cuz’ she’s an artist. I assumed he meant me, so I tried to come up with a nice bracelet design. After that, we all went back down to the gym to play and Babalouie was just as excited about that as the arts/crafts part of the day, yelling to his buddies that his grandpa was a coach and could teach them all to play basketball. He skipped down the hall toward the gym.
I turned to Jay and said “When was the last time you were so happy you skipped?”
He said “An hour ago.” Then he skipped down the hall and into the gym.
It was a good day.