Happy Easter, everyone!
Congratulations to Heather, Adam, and
Brandon Green – it’s a boy! Yes, that’s
right, the Easter Bunny brought the Green family a baby. Julian Green was born this morning – sometime
while nearly everyone else except the Green family was enjoying the pancake
breakfast at the church.
Julian may eventually decide that he loves being
an Easter baby. Unlike Christmas babies,
his birthday won’t actually be on Easter very often. Easter will only be on April 20th
three times between now and the end of the century – 2025, 2087, and 2098. I wonder if he’ll joke about only having had
three birthdays so far in 2098; the way that leap-year babies joke about only
having one birthday every four years.
While I’m sure that Heather is very happy
with her little Easter bundle of joy, it wasn’t a particularly fun morning for
her after going into labor in the wee hours of the night. With his nurse and back-up doctor out of town
for the weekend; Uncle Adam had his hands full too; though he had some support
from Aunt Leanne and members of the Green family. I should mention that Julian arrived about
two weeks early; and that’s one of the reason why nobody was really even
thinking about possible baby deliveries this weekend. He’s perfectly healthy, if a bit small;
though that is why Uncle Adam is keeping Heather and her new baby at the clinic
overnight so that he can keep an eye on them and make sure that Julian is doing
okay before sending him home.
That’s partly for appearances, since he is
able to check out all babies with a little Magi help; but the Greens don’t know
that so he’s mostly playing it by the book for their benefit.
While the new baby in town became the big
story at church, there is one other birthday I should mention; since it’s for
one of my classmates.
Happy 14th Birthday, Brock!
He wasn’t an Easter baby, but his birthday
falls in the range of dates for Easter; and now he’ll have those same three
future Easters to look forward to celebrating his birthday on along with
Julian. That’s not very exciting for him
this year, and he isn’t having a party with his friends because everyone is
busy with family Easter plans instead.
That kind of thing isn’t easy for a teen, but some of us tried to help
him out with that with the birthday gifts we gave him this morning while we
were all at church. Michael, Tim, Rowen,
and I did a joint gift; and some of our friends had presents with them too;
though we couldn’t even do a little party at church because we were so busy with
the two services and the breakfast in between them.
With all of that covered, I guess it’s time
to back up and start my own news of the day from when Ethan and Ehlana gave me
my early morning wake-up call.
Those hugs and kisses were a great way to
start the day; and rushing downstairs to find out what the Easter Bunny brought
for us was an entertaining beginning to a really busy hour or so as we munched
on treats and checked out the rest of our loot before going to wake up Mom and
Dad and then needing to collectively get ready for church. Mom, Ehlana, and I needed to cheat a bit to
have time to get our hair done properly and put on our Easter dresses and
accessories. That extra Magi effort was
worth it because we really wowed all of our favorite boys – though Mom and I
appreciated that a bit more than Ehlana did.
We had a beautiful morning, and I wish that
we’d had time for Tai Chi by the river too; but there was barely enough time to
make the walk to church as it was without trying to add our exercise routine to
the mix. Aunt Leanne had called us to
let us know that she wouldn’t be at church, and though we would have taken Zack
with us for the morning; she’d already had him picked up by Grandma and Grandpa
– and they were going to share him with Grandma and Grandpa Carrington for most
of the day. Since Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne were hosting our family Easter dinner this year, they also needed help
around their house, but Mom and Dad didn’t start doing that until after
breakfast at the Inn and then after the second service.
The teen-led sunrise service is one of my
favorites of the year; and I really loved all of the music and skits that they
used to tell the Easter story to a nearly-full house in the sanctuary. I don’t know exactly what Michael and I will
do next year when we’re part of the teen group; but I’m sure that we’re going
to have a lot of fun finding out what it’s like to be on that side of the fun
and entertainment. We didn’t need to
wait a year to find out about that for the teen side of the pancake breakfast
work; though Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had breakfast with our families first
before offering to join the work crew in the kitchen and washing or drying
dishes through until just before the second service started at eleven.
Michael and I have lots of kitchen
experience from helping out at the Inn, but the kitchen at the church was not
nearly as organized; and there was quite a bit of goofing around going on
too. Tim was quite happy to help out
with that part of the job, and while he and the other guys involved had fun and
kept the rest of us entertained; they also didn’t get too far out of
control. That might have had something
to do with the need not to do anything that might mess with the girls around
them who might get more than a bit irate if anything happened to best dresses,
hair, or make-up; but that also means that the boys are making some slow
progress too. Those thoughts wouldn’t
have even crossed their minds in the not so distant past.
Maybe there’s hope for them after all! ;^)
While I was doing that work, Mom and Dad
had popped over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house to do some dinner prep
work that included getting the turkey into the oven to start cooking. They had help both at the house, and with the
twins. Ethan and Ehlana spent that time
with Aiden, Naomi, and their families; and then they were returned to Mom and
Dad in time for the second service. The
teens were back to help out with that service too; though Pastor John and the
adult praise team led that second hour and change of Easter celebration. After spending more than five hours at the
church, Michael and I weren’t the only people ready to head home when we were
set free at about a quarter after twelve.
We took Ethan and Ehlana with us and headed home ahead of everyone else
in our families. Michael stopped in at
his house to get changed, and Ethan, Ehlana, and I were changed and dressed to
play by the time he met up with us again at about the same time that Mom and
Dad were passing through on their way to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house.
Since they were going to be busy for a
while, we grabbed a snack lunch and then got our bikes and the trailer and went
for a ride around town that ended at the park.
Michael and I had a bit less than two hours to play with Ethan and
Ehlana before we needed to be at the Bassett’s house for their family’s Easter
dinner; and we ended up playing with Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia when they came
over to the park too – sent there to get out from under foot while the parents
were busy with the work in the kitchen.
Rowen and Tim stopped in for a while too, but they were juggling family
dinners too; and had even less time than we did before needing to be at his
aunt and uncle’s house for their first big meal.
Michael and I needed to take Ethan and
Ehlana home before going on to his aunt and uncle’s house, but we walked our
bikes and the trailer so that his cousins could walk as far as their house with
us. We dropped my bike and the trailer
off at my house; took the twins on to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house after
finding out that Mom and Dad were still there; and then we back-tracked to the
Bassett’s home.
I’m not going to cover every detail of the
next five hours or so because there was just so much going on that would take
all night – or at least more time-phase energy than I have left in me
tonight. The food for both dinners was
amazing; we had a blast with our families; ate way too much; and did two more
rounds of kitchen cleaning after each meal.
The second dinner was even later than planned because Uncle Adam wasn’t
able to get away from the clinic until nearly six o’clock; and then he only did
that long enough to eat with us while leaving Heather and Julian with their
family at the clinic to watch them while he was away. He’s going to have some overnight relief from
Uncle Mark later; but it’s been a very long day for Uncle Adam and he’s been
running on just the few hours of sleep he was able to get before the late night
call came in from Adam Green.
That’s why it was after eight by the time
the work was done in the kitchen at their house and Mom and Dad were ready to
take Ethan, Ehlana, and me home for the night.
Michael and I would have liked to spend some more time together, but we
each had things to do tonight – including getting ready for school in the
morning. After saying goodnight to
Michael on the front porch, I started out my evening fun with a Magi lesson
with Mom while Dad got to work and the twins did some college class
studying. Mom and I followed that up
with the bedtime routine with the twins, and after getting them tucked into bed
for the night; I came up to my room and got started on my usual school night
studies and work. I got as much done as
I could by eleven-thirty; putting that time limit on because I’m going to need
to get a bit of extra sleep this week to be ready for our week in Washington
D.C.. I followed up that studying and
work with my usual bedtime computer checks; but there weren’t very many email
in yet with college teen or family Easter reports, so there isn’t any news to
report from any of that tonight.
If I wrap this up now, I should be sleeping
by midnight as planned; so that’s it for now, and I’m out of here. Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
