Well, it is April 14th., at least.
Someone should have warned me when I was a 13 year old yearning to turn 15, and then 18, that those seemingly eternal years were going to translate into faster-than-speed-of-light years in my 30s and 40s. Who would have thought of that back then?
We managed to escape Easter, a little, this past weekend. Not escape it in the way we celebrate it in our hearts, of course (for us, as Christians, Easter represents a remarkable event that transformed our existence over 2000 years ago, and continues to fill our very being with a hard-to-describe sense of love and gratitude), but escape it as in not doing the same things we have always done before. Every year, Easter was grandma's pride and joy. She loved setting up the table and making a delightful feast for the entire family. Her house would be filled with Spring flowers and pure magic. It was always as if you were stepping into a house of ethereal joy, and never-ending love. Easter egg hunts were more than just a fun little game for the little ones, they were moments of insane happiness and picture perfect experiences (her yard was always a delightful place to be). Since the passing of my father in law shortly before Easter last year, followed by grandma's passing last December; waiting for this holiday has been more than challenging, to put it lightly. Thinking of being at grandma's house, without grandma being there, was just heart-breaking. This is why we decided to escape. So last weekend, we took a quick weekend family trip (including our nephew, sister in law and mother in law) to the only place we know that can make us all happy when we really need to be happy, the happiest place on earth, as they call it.
And yes, our happy place delivered many magical moments for us. We certainly are so very grateful for each and everyone of them. We even managed to create our own little Easter egg hunt for the kids (I do have a teenager who wouldn't let me forget that she was the first baby in the family.) We made friends with adorable kids we run into with whom we loved to share the hunting games with (no pun intended.) We celebrated my nephew Jayden's third birthday in our favorite Italian restaurant. We even stopped by our little family restaurant, Tiffy's, and saw our favorite server Corina. We can never go to Disneyland without stopping, at least once, for breakfast at Tiffy's.
Certainly, we couldn't avoid thinking of grandma all weekend long. We kept running into beautiful flowers that reminded us of her every single time. We ate Italian food and compared it with the food she used to cook for us (never nearly as good as hers). We all had reminiscences about all the loving things she did for us, of how she made us feel so loved. We talked about how much we miss her, and how much we miss my father in law, too. And just how life has changed for our family. Yes, there is comfort in knowing that they are both in a happier place without any worldly worries, but oh, how hard it is for the rest of us left here filling the void of their presence. Inexplicably, however, grandma and Pa's presence were felt all along the Easter weekend. Funny how that happens.
So we escaped Easter, but we really didn't quite escape it. Easter poured its magic on all of us, anyway.
