These images have been floating through my mind all day as I have spent the past several hours of Easter Sunday alone at home. Oh, I'm not feeling sad or morose. My family will be here later for an indoor egg hunt on this gloomy and rainy Easter Sunday. We will all sit down to a salmon and asparagus dinner. There will be plenty of chocolate.
Today, all the men in my family were up before dawn to get to the mountain pass ski resort by 8:00 a.m. for our 6 year-old Angel's first snowboard lesson. It is a special "kids day" with free gear and lessons all day long and a snow-bank egg hunt to boot! She was at first hesitant, then excited, and I just saw a video of her on Facebook looking like a pro gliding down a gentle hill of snow with ski lifts in the background making me wonder if we might have another snowboard fanatic in the making. (Hub would be so thrilled!)
My childhood Easter was not spent on any ski slope. In my childhood in Northern Illinois, it was a day for my family and my aunt's family to gather at one home or another (my mother, in our small city, and her sister, in a tiny country town, traded off hosting holidays), having a meal and entertaining myself while the grown ups talked. My older brother and boy cousin were 10 years older than I and both ignored me completely. My younger brother 4 years younger was around, but not interested in dolls or coloring or fingering the fabrics my mom and aunt and grandma seemed to delight in sharing around, with patterns they planned to sew. I was pretty much on my own.
I was a quiet girl, content with hanging on the fringes of adult conversation, playing games, dressing dolls, creating a rich inner fantasy life of stories and songs. I imagine Easter was a day for all of that for me. And really, that's a bit what I've been up to today. Quietly planning my dinner menu, preparing food, setting the table, meditating, reading, sending a few emails, reading, writing this blog post....
Just waiting for my beautiful family to come through the door with tales of adventures and two little girls eager to find baskets of gifts and eggs. Their memories of grandma's house will be different from mine. But I hope they will recall them as fondly.
At least, that's the view from here....©
The things we build our memories upon changes over the decades but the most important element still remains the most important element...spending time together. That's the best part no matter what traditions end or begin. Snowboarding and Easter, now that's quite a combination!
ReplyDeleteCan you believe it, I still have my childhood Easter basket!
You have your childhood Easter basket??? That's so cool!
DeleteWe had a lovely time once everyone arrived yesterday. The sun actually came out for a bit -- long enough for an outdoor egg hunt in the yard!