Mom, Buck and Uncle T came up for Easter. I was SO pleased. I was really really down that I wasn't going to spend Easter in Cincinnati as per usual. It just wouldn't seem like a holiday without some family around me! So I can't say how excited I was when Mom and Buck agreed to come up. And I was pretty surprised when Uncle T said he'd come too. I mean, I can't imagine anything he'd like to do less then sit in my house and be surrounded by noisy little kids. (And of course we had miserable weather, so Uncle T couldn't even go outside and chase them around.) However (I think) it was a big success anyway. He was appeased by FoxTrot comic books and food.

Lots o' food. It really reminded me of Cincinnati, where every meal is huge - especially at Aunt J.'s house. SO that just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. (My goal is to be the family matriarch, but I'll have to pry the title from Aunt J., who I am sure is not eager to give it up! J) Buck's Easter tradition is to have a beer followed by a shot chaser at noon on Saturday. And then have polish kobassi and scrambled eggs. So we had a fine pre-Easter feast on Saturday. Eggs with mushrooms and cheese, and then fried onion and green pepper to add in (I did not help at all.) Pumpkin got to help in that he got to break the eggs, which is always a big ole mess. But it makes him happy to help. For me, one of the most fun things was that I got to help cook Sunday Easter brunch. We had ham, fried noodles, sweet potato pie, and cinnamon carrots. My major contribution was to remember to put the ham in before we left for mass - which we almost forgot to do!!

My other major contribution was going to the grocery store. With mom it is a major production because she can't stand to see Precious cry (another Victim besides her father!) Consequently, since Pumpkin wants to come, then Precious has to come by edict of Grandma, and Twinkle has to come because of the law of nature which says "Not only must you carry him in your belly for 9 months, now he's attached to your chest for at least another 6." So the caravan attempts to buy Easter supplies, looking like the Sherpas attacking Mt. Everest. In isle 2 Pumpkin makes some totally random comment about paying for this, which causes the Team Leader (me) to remember her checkbook is in a totally logical place - the junk drawer in the kitchen. So I call Hubby who was probably about to get into the shower since he has no kids (FINALLY) in the house. Sorry honey, you have to drive your mother-in-laws car (his is in the shop) and bring me the checkbook. Happily he does this without asking how I ended up in the store with a purse without money, a checkbook, or a debit or credit card. (But I had a well stocked diaper bag!) Shopping trip completed we take the full cart and 3 kids to the curb. Precious at this point remembers she is two and, appalled that she had NOT thrown a fit in the store, takes the Uncle Te to do so now. So I pick her up and take her with me to the car - ironically, she is quite pleased by this - while mom stays with the food, Pumpkin, and Twinkle. I plop Precious in the car seat with the keys in my mouth, distinctly hearing the car beep (which means it locks the doors). I then toss the keys in the front seat to keep Precious from grabbing them, lock her seat, shut the door, and am totally shocked when the drivers front door doesn't open. By golly, Precious's doesn't either. Holy shit I've locked my keys in the car with Precious in there! Ha ha.. So now I have to call Hubby again! Yes this is me. Shut up and bring me your car keys. Just Don't Ask!

So now I've got to go back to the car and attempt to communicate to Precious via hand signals that she's fine and I'll be with her in a minute. This to the child I can't communicate with via words. However, she's found her thumb and doesn't seem to realized that the car is not moving, or that I'm not even in the car. So I stand there and wait, stand there and look for Hubby in mom's car, stand there and . . . .click. Hey! The door just unlocked?! Pull open the door and look befuddled. I look for mom's car; not to be seen. Look at my keys in wonderment. Look around again. Look at the keys again. Hear Uncle T and Hubby peeing in their pants with laughter. In Uncle T's car - which I wasn't looking for - they had driven by my car and unlocked it remotely with Hubby's keys. You can just imagine how totally stupid I looked with my head spinning around and my looking at my car keys with wonderment! By God it's a Easter Miracle!

While Precious was taking her nap on Saturday we dyed Easter eggs. I think Uncle T and I had as much fun as Pumpkin! We only dyed a dozen, which wasn't nearly enough! Yet another Big ole mess! I think that next year Precious may be able to join in on the fun. I totally forgot how much fun it was to dye eggs! To draw on them with the little crayon! To put stickers on! Poor Uncle T, he's actually trying to be creative while Pumpkin is trying to hoard every egg. What color Pumpkin? Carefully now (crunch, oops) Ok Pumpkin, next Uncle Te don't drop the egg like that.

So on Sunday morning we had to find the eggs. Since they had found the baskets the week before, both Pumpkin and Precious were primed for finding eggs. Both kids got up at like the absolute CRACK of dawn. How do they know these things? I'm like - Pumpkin stay in bed until Grandma and Grandpa get up. But he's up, he gets Twinkle up, whose crying gets Precious up. Immediately Pumpkin is like - "did the Easter Bunny come? I want to look for eggs!" But I thought, as the mommy, I should at least be able to see some of it! And I had to feed Twinkle first. Adding to Pumpkin's haste, mom remembered the Molleran tradition of always putting eggs in the shoes. I don't remember this at all? Apparently we did it for Uncle T and me too, but I really have no recollection of it. Anyway, their shoes were carefully placed at the front door, each with an egg in them. Pumpkin could see this from the top of the stairs and it was driving him insane. So everyone is waiting for me to finish feeding Twinkle and become clothed - which does not make for a calm, casual nursing session! I have to say finding the Easter eggs was a big success. Precious actually found some on her own, and would do a little victory dance when she did. She would never let go of an egg once she found it, and if she found another one her victory dance then included banging the eggs together over her head. Then she would realize that the eggs came apart and try to mush them into the carpet. So we tried to make sure she found only plastic eggs. Pumpkin was very much into finding eggs and only needed a little direction now and then.

Getting up at the crack of dawn was helpful in that I wanted to be out the door by 9:30 for 10 am Mass. And we had 5 adults that wanted showers. However, when everyone is wide awake by 7 am, being ready by 9:30 is not a problem. J There we were, 2 pots of coffee later, out the door by 9:35. Happily, Uncle T came to Mass and Hubby was willing to wear a full suit and tie. Originally he didn't want to wear a suit, his argument being "I have to wear a suit every day to work and I don't want to do it on the weekend too (growl)." So I was like - you HAVE to, out of respect for the importance of the day, and because I want good photos. So then I ask mom what she was wearing and she says - I'm wearing slacks, because I have to wear hose and heals every day to work and I don't want to wear them again tomorrow. Oops! I smiled at Hubby and told him he was off the hook on the suit part. So I was pleased when the next day he put on a suit for me anyway. We all looked so good! It's a shame that the woman we found to take our pictures at church cut Pumpkin's entire body off in the one family photo we took.

Of course, the most important part of Easter is going to Mass, and we had 5 adults and 3 kids, and Twinkle slept most of the time. A great Mass. Finally! And at the end of mass the priest walked out in front of the alter and said something to the effect of, this may the first time at mass in a long Uncle Te for some of you, and please know you are always welcome here. Consider that this may be God's invitation for you to come back to church. So that was pretty neat.