All that’s needed for a glorious Easter | Living with Gleigh

After last Easter, I decided to dispense with a fancy dinner

By Gretchen Leigh

After last Easter, I decided to dispense with a fancy dinner. The kids are growing up, some of us are getting old, and quite frankly, we’re dropping like flies.

I was surprised after church last year when I inquired about one of my friend’s plans. She has a much larger family than mine, so I figured she’d rush home like I always did and put the finishing touches on a celebratory meal. She told me she was just going to go home and take a nap. You can do that? That’s OK? God won’t smite you?

I determined I was going to do the same this year. My mother protested the most, because she enjoyed eating a meal at our home with my normally busy family. But I also happen to know breakfast is her favorite meal of the day, which is simple on Easter because there are eggs, boiled eggs, beautifully colored boiled eggs. I did change it up a bit and made a sausage, hash brown casserole to make it extra special.

My biggest conflict for anything is the coordination of bodies, and even though this year was just my kids, husband and mother, I still had conflicts. I resented the anime convention (where people dress up… uh, cosplay cartoon characters and walk aimlessly around so other people can see them) organizers who insist on having their event on Easter weekend.

My kids would really like to go back on Sunday. Now that they’re adults and can make that decision for themselves, they have to inform me of their schedule so I can make sure we get to church and a meal is served on time. The problem is, it’s difficult for them to commit ahead of time so I’m pressed into forcing my hand and making them decide a couple days in advance. They’d rather make the decision Saturday night after they get home from a second day of convention to see how they feel physically.

I personally would really enjoy just getting out of bed on Sunday and making it to the 8:30 a.m. mass. My kids and my mother dug in their heels on that one because it’s too early. So if my kids decided they actually wanted to go back to the convention on Sunday, we’d have to go to the 10 a.m. service, which is also the one most heavily attended, meaning we’d have to leave the house by 9 to get a seat.

Making them decide, deflecting my mother’s desires, and realizing I have no control left, kind of made me grumpy on Thursday evening when they returned home from school. They still wanted to color Easter eggs, they still wanted the Easter bunny to visit them, hide the eggs and leave them chocolate, and they still wanted strawberry shortcake.

I’m not sure they voluntarily chose not to go back, because I may have held the potential absence of strawberry shortcake over their heads. We had breakfast at 10 (almost lunch to me), followed it with strawberry shortcake, and went to church at noon. Though I didn’t come home and take a nap, it was rather pleasant to take the rest of the day off from domestic responsibilities. We still had a glorious Easter. Really, all that’s needed to make Easter special are chocolate bunnies, colored eggs and strawberry shortcake. Jesus took care of the rest.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com, follow her on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh by Gretchen Leigh”or on Twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is also available at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Life section.