Happy Easter!
This has been my favorite Easter ever so far. The rain had moved on overnight, and though
the sun wasn’t up yet when I got out of bed, the sky showed all the promise of
the beautiful spring day that should be part of every Easter celebration. We had a blast playing with Ethan and Ehlana
this morning; following bunny footprints; discovering all of the treats and
surprises; and getting to find out what the Easter Bunny had left for us in our
baskets.
We needed to kick it into high gear after that. Violet needed to pack to head home; we all
needed to get ready for church; and we tag-teamed taking care of Ethan and
Ehlana. Violet drove over to the church
because she was leaving for home from there; and she probably stopped in to get
Dillon on her way there. Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne were walking to church, and they collected us along the way. I had been so busy getting ready for church
that I hadn’t really thought much about how I looked in my new dress until Aunt
Leanne nudged me and whispered a ‘way to go, girl’ – her comment brought on by
Michael’s reaction to seeing me when we met up with the Stone family in front
of their house. That comment, and seeing
the expression on Michael’s face immediately reminded me that my new outfit had
moved me up a couple of notches from ‘little girl cute’ – maybe three
notches. That felt really good, weird,
and uncomfortable all at the same time.
Fortunately, there were hugs and kisses to share, along with
Happy Easter and belated Happy Birthday wishes to exchange; so I didn’t have
time to think about that too much. Yes,
I hugged Michael too – just as I hugged Jake, Rebecca, and their parents. I’ll pretend that I didn’t see Aunt Leanne’s
smug little grin; and I’ve been trying all day not to think about how that
particular hug felt. We’d needed to keep
moving to get to the sunrise service on time, but junior matchmakers Ethan and
Ehlana made sure that Michael stayed close to me – getting us to take turns
holding their hands and doing the walk-swing with each of them.
I temporarily entered the tweeird zone when we were still
about half a block away from the church.
Lisa had been waiting outside for Michael, but changed her mind about
that when she caught sight of us smiling, laughing, and swinging Ehlana between
us as we walked. Her once-over look at
me was all I needed to see to know that she had a much different opinion of how
I looked today than Michael had, and though I wish she hadn’t felt that way; it
was a big compliment too – in a silent, cold-shoulder, back-handed kind of
way. Michael let out a soft, sad sigh
while we both watched her walk away, and I let go of Ehlana’s hand long enough
to reach over and squeeze his arm; wishing as always that I could do more to
help both of them. While there wasn’t
anything I could do without making things worse, Ehlana had not trouble helping
out by getting Michael to pick her up so she could give him a hug and kiss.
When we got into the sanctuary, we split up to go sit in our
usual places; though Michael went to sit with Lisa instead of with his
family. The Easter present he handed her
seemed to help smooth things over a little; but not by very much. The teen-led service was up-beat,
enthusiastic, and joyful. I was totally
sucked into the experience, and pretty much tried not to think about anything
else going on around me – not that I missed any of it. Our family had tickets for the first sitting
of the pancake breakfast; mostly because Violet needed to head back to Woodvale
in time for the Rice family Easter dinner.
Dillon joined us for that, though he had helped out in the kitchen
before we sat down to eat; and would be helping out for the rest of the morning
too. I got to have Rowen with me too,
though the rest of her family was going to the second sitting instead.
There were nearly three hours between the end of the sunrise
service and the start of the delayed regular Sunday service. After having breakfast, we – my family,
Rowen, and Dillon – had time to say goodbye to Violet and see her off, and
then, after Dillon went to work in the kitchen again; the rest of us went for a
walk. Since some of us were wearing
dress shoes that were not made for long walks, we took our time, and didn’t really
go that far. Uncle Adam made a little
side trip up to his house to check on the turkey in the oven; but caught up
with us again before we got back to the church.
We were sitting in the sanctuary again with nearly a half-hour to go
before the service would be starting; but there was music to listen to, and a
long line of little cameo visits with our neighbors and friends as the
sanctuary filled up again.
The teens had some encore performances from the sunrise
service that were part of the second service, but the Pastors led us through the
Easter story again. There was only
Sunday school or daycare for the youngest kids, so Pastor Lewis had a full
house for his Easter message; and he enthusiastically entertained us until
nearly twelve-thirty. Uncle Adam needed
to get home and back to his Easter dinner cooking in progress, but the rest of
us spent the next half hour sharing some more Easter best wishes with our
friends while making our way out of the church in the slow-moving, greet the
pastors line.
Rowen and I needed to split up to go and get changed, but
then we had some time to play together while the parents were busy with getting
ready for their respective family dinner plans.
Mom and Dad had contributions for the collective family dinner we were
having at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s, but we carried all of that food down to
their house after getting changed; and they were going to be helping out with
the work there while I got to play.
Rowen and I took Ethan and Ehlana to the park with us; and there were a
lot of kids and teens hanging out there for the afternoon. That included Michael, Lisa, Tim, and Nora,
but other than stopping for a minute when Ethan and Ehlana ran over to them to
get hugs from Michael; they didn’t hang out anywhere near us the entire time we
were there.
Unfortunately for Michael and Tim, they didn’t really do
anything except hang around with some of the other tween couples at the
pavilion and do nothing – mostly because the park lawns and paths were pretty
soft and messy because of the rain yesterday and overnight; and most of the
girls didn’t want to get dirty. Rowen
and I didn’t have that problem; and we had fun running around the playground
with Ethan, Ehlana, and the other little kids.
That did mean leaving early enough to stop in at home so we could get cleaned
up and changed; but that didn’t take long; and we were back at Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne’s with an hour to go before dinner.
Rowen only stopped in long enough to have a little drink and
light snack break before going home again; and while the grandparents let Ethan
and Ehlana entertain them in the living room; I joined the dinner work crew in
the kitchen. Not having our collective
extended families home for the long weekend allowed us to invite more of our
home town family to have dinner with us today.
Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah invited his parents, Liz, Philip, and Naomi
– which made Ehlana and Ethan very happy.
The rest of our guests tonight were mostly older cousins from Grandma’s
family; the Carrington’s; and the Johnson’s.
While I’m thinking about Grandma’s family, let’s take a
little side trip; since I haven’t written anything about that side of my family
in my journal before.
Grandma’s maiden name was Howard. Her family was one of the poorer in town when
she was growing up, and marrying Shawn Proctor had caused quite a stir with
that side of her family. Moving that
many steps up the social ladder back then was quite unusual. My adopted great-grandmother had been the
only Magi in the Howard family until Grandma was born; and that had been the
case for her mother too – marrying into a non-Magi family. Their gifts had been ultimately inherited
from distant Byrd and Palmer ancestors.
It’s not really surprising that her rise in social status
affected her relationship with her cousins, though just the fact that she
didn’t have any cousins close in age to her either made a difference too. They obviously don’t know about her Magi
abilities either, but while that made her acceptance into Grandpa’s ‘world’
easier; I don’t think it affected how either of them felt and acted around the
Howard family. They mostly just didn’t
have much in common when they were younger with cousins who were ten or more
years older – or younger – than they were.
I’m in that same situation with that side of our family, and
though I know all of my Howard adopted cousins; I’m not close to any of them;
and the young adults closest to me in age haven’t started families yet. Maybe that will be different for Ethan and
Ehlana, but there hasn’t been anything we’ve seen in our future to give us any
hints about that one way or the other. I
can tell you that my brother and sister totally charmed Grandma’s older cousins
today. Then again, I haven’t seen anyone
yet who hasn’t felt that way about them – after all, they are absolutely
adorable!
Moving back to the daily recap, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and I
were the only kids at dinner. The
cousins that grandma had invited were contemporaries of Grandma and Grandpa
Johnson; and the youngest Carrington and Johnson cousins were in their late
forties. All of them had been invited
because they were on their own while their closer relatives were busy with the
in-law sides of their own families – pretty much like our families were this
weekend. We sat down for dinner at
five-thirty, and I mostly helped out with Naomi and the twins. Liz and Aunt Leanne were the closest women to
us, and we talked with them a bit too, but all of the adults mostly carried on
their own ‘grown-up’ conversations while we ate; and three out of four of us
were stuck playing normal toddler, so our conversation was very limited.
The food was awesome; the Olde Bakery desserts were as
amazing as always; and the twins, Naomi, and I had fun; but I was actually glad
to get up and join the clean-up crew when we started on that at a bit after
seven. The grandparents were in charge
of the kids, and they all went out for a walk that was going to include walking
some of the cousins to their homes. Some
of the other guests went home then too, but out of the younger adults; only the
pregnant women – Aunt Deborah, Aunt Leanne, and Liz – were given work crew
passes; and two out of three of them helped out at least a little anyway. By then, Aunt Deborah was exhausted; she was
ordered into the living room; and ended up having a nap while we worked.
You know it’s been a long day when I start getting tired,
and I was getting there fast by the time we had the dining room and kitchen
spotless again. Dad still had a bit of
work to get done in the office, so he and Mom took Ethan, Ehlana, and I home
then; and it didn’t look like it would be very much longer before Uncle Adam
and Aunt Leanne would have the house to themselves again.
While Dad worked, Mom did a short Magi lesson with Ethan and
Ehlana; we gave them baths; got them ready for bed; and stopped in the office
to do their bedtime story with Dad. We
skipped the bedtime snack that none of us needed or wanted, and after Ethan and
Ehlana were tucked in for the night; Mom did a different Magi lesson with me in
the office before sending me up to bed too.
She and Dad are in bed now too, and they’re not sleeping any
more than I am; but let’s not go there.
I’ve been doing my usual school night studying and nightly computing for
the past couple of hours, and though there was more than I wanted to do
tonight; I’ve hit the wall and need to get some sleep. The email news included a kid-rated recap of
Aunt Grace’s weekend with Mark and his family; it sounds like they all had fun;
and I’m glad that her trip home was safe and uneventful. Violet let me know that her drive back to
Woodvale had been fine too; and she and Dawn had both sent me Rice family
Easter reports. I know that Violet would
have rather spent the day with Dillon, but the good news is that they’ll be
finished high school in just eleven more weeks; and won’t ever need to spend
weeks apart again. They’ll only have one
holiday weekend between now and then, but I’m sure they’ll get together every
two or three weeks for visits – even if it’s only a few hours together in
Crystal Springs.
Anyway, that’s it for tonight, and I’m seriously ready to
pass out now, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
