Easter Morning
Today was Easter. Celebrating the holiday is a lot easier when Ellie is on call and we have no pressure to visit our families, both of whom live about three hours from us and a half-hour from each other. As much as we love our families, visiting them over a holiday requires a level of planning and coordination that would make a major military excursion look like a visit to grandma’s house; we have to time meals with both families to ensure one side gets to enjoy the children while we gorge ourselves on dinner, and then the other side gets to enjoy an equal amount of time with the children while we gorge ourselves on dessert.
We can’t go anywhere with Ellie on call though, so our families come to us, preferably taking turns because with a copy of every toddler toy manufactured in China over the last two years littering our living room floor, we don’t have much space for entertaining. Ellie’s father has the honor of visiting on the actual holiday this time with my mother visiting next weekend. It’s an effective rotation that spaces out our celebratory duties while stretching every holiday over two weekends and helping them bleed into each other. The visits for Cinco de Mayo begin the weekend after my mother’s Easter visit.
I rolled over in bed this morning about an hour later than I intended to sleep and asked Ellie when her dad would arrive. She said in about 45 minutes, and I knew that once again I’d underestimated the grandparent’s desire to see the grandchildren. I leapt out of bed, or at least I moved as fast as I can move these days immediately after waking from my dangerously minimized sleep, and went to work. We had a lot to do before company arrived, like dress everybody, feed everybody, and shovel floor-bound toys into the toy box. Most of all we wanted to give the children their Easter baskets with just the five of us present.
Yes, we threw together Easter baskets for three children who are too young to grasp the concept of Easter baskets, and for two children who are too young to interact with anything in an Easter basket. Children are only this young once, and Easter is our only chance of the year to shower them with candy and presents, not counting Christmas, birthdays, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and the day we get our tax refund. The boys simply shared a small basket anyway, filled only with a couple of Pooh dolls that squeak when shaken. They don’t even notice them, though Abbie thinks they’re great. Abbie had a little more in her basket, including a holiday Dora the Explorer DVD so she can learn about Easter year round, and a flower toy that spins and lights up. At least it used to light up; Abbie threw it to the ground a few too many times and broke it before noon. We did not give her candy for Easter. It’s not that we forbid sugar, but rather the candy will go on sale tomorrow, and she’ll never know if it’s a day late.
We crammed in a leisurely Easter morning before her father arrived, and spent the rest of the morning enjoying a typical Easter. Then we mostly improvised an Easter dinner of grilled steaks and ribs, rolls, green bean casserole*, Snicker’s salad**, and a homemade blueberry pie from great-grandma. Ellie’s father enjoyed the meal. Ellie enjoyed the meal. Abbie only enjoyed the Snickers salad and the pie after much prodding to try it. The twins enjoyed falling asleep while watching us from their bouncy chairs, though not before Ian pooped through his diaper. I enjoyed the meal, and the fact that we didn’t have to rush to another meal.
* Green bean casserole is legally required at holiday dinners in Iowa.
** We needed something fruit-based, even though we went a little heavier on the Snickers than the apples.
We can’t go anywhere with Ellie on call though, so our families come to us, preferably taking turns because with a copy of every toddler toy manufactured in China over the last two years littering our living room floor, we don’t have much space for entertaining. Ellie’s father has the honor of visiting on the actual holiday this time with my mother visiting next weekend. It’s an effective rotation that spaces out our celebratory duties while stretching every holiday over two weekends and helping them bleed into each other. The visits for Cinco de Mayo begin the weekend after my mother’s Easter visit.
I rolled over in bed this morning about an hour later than I intended to sleep and asked Ellie when her dad would arrive. She said in about 45 minutes, and I knew that once again I’d underestimated the grandparent’s desire to see the grandchildren. I leapt out of bed, or at least I moved as fast as I can move these days immediately after waking from my dangerously minimized sleep, and went to work. We had a lot to do before company arrived, like dress everybody, feed everybody, and shovel floor-bound toys into the toy box. Most of all we wanted to give the children their Easter baskets with just the five of us present.
Yes, we threw together Easter baskets for three children who are too young to grasp the concept of Easter baskets, and for two children who are too young to interact with anything in an Easter basket. Children are only this young once, and Easter is our only chance of the year to shower them with candy and presents, not counting Christmas, birthdays, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and the day we get our tax refund. The boys simply shared a small basket anyway, filled only with a couple of Pooh dolls that squeak when shaken. They don’t even notice them, though Abbie thinks they’re great. Abbie had a little more in her basket, including a holiday Dora the Explorer DVD so she can learn about Easter year round, and a flower toy that spins and lights up. At least it used to light up; Abbie threw it to the ground a few too many times and broke it before noon. We did not give her candy for Easter. It’s not that we forbid sugar, but rather the candy will go on sale tomorrow, and she’ll never know if it’s a day late.
We crammed in a leisurely Easter morning before her father arrived, and spent the rest of the morning enjoying a typical Easter. Then we mostly improvised an Easter dinner of grilled steaks and ribs, rolls, green bean casserole*, Snicker’s salad**, and a homemade blueberry pie from great-grandma. Ellie’s father enjoyed the meal. Ellie enjoyed the meal. Abbie only enjoyed the Snickers salad and the pie after much prodding to try it. The twins enjoyed falling asleep while watching us from their bouncy chairs, though not before Ian pooped through his diaper. I enjoyed the meal, and the fact that we didn’t have to rush to another meal.
* Green bean casserole is legally required at holiday dinners in Iowa.
** We needed something fruit-based, even though we went a little heavier on the Snickers than the apples.
posted by Matt at
10:54 PM
2 Comments:
I skipped the Easter presents this year--I figure the whole twin thing is going to hit me hard when they need cars and want to go to college, so I'm saving when I can :)
Green bean casserole is required here, too. In fact, I'm having leftover green bean casserole for lunch today.
By
Amy, at 8:14 AM
My favorite part of the day was watching my daughter totally chill with her new sunglasses. Now, in addition to demanding SHOES! SHOES! SHOES! every two seconds, she will probably want her sunglasses too.
By
Becky, at 8:29 AM
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