Easter

Katie D.

April 15, 2009 - 7:00 PM

Yet another holiday finds me far from home.

Easter is a tough one, too. In the cycle of who-hosts-what in our extended family, Easter is the one holiday get-together that happens at my family's house. Growing up it was always Thanksgiving at Grandma's house,Christmas at Aunt and Uncle's, and Easter at ours.

Colorado is always so fun at this time of year, too. It can be beatiful blue skies, with lilacs blooming and tulips coming up, or there can be a massive snowstorm.

I also love Easter at my home church. All the little girls in their Easter dresses, a huge holiday choir of over a hundred people, and a packed building.

I fully intended to attend church this Easter. I really enjoy church at First United Methodist, and generally make it over to church at least a couple of times a month. This Easter, though, caught me in a state of near-complete exhaustion.

So I stayed home and slept in a little. I missed being there for Easter Sunday, but my mental health thanks me for the morning off.

What I did instead was have an Easter brunch with some of my best friends. Four of us put together a feast and ate together for Easter. I brought French toast and mimosas (standing in front of the wine aisle at Albertson's was really intimidating. I'll need to do some major studying-up before I'll actually know what I'm doing). We also had fruit salad, sausages, rolls, and quiche.

When I'm not home, my friends are my family. Easter with my Oregon people (albeit the abbreviated group since half of the usual suspects were either visiting family or abroad) was really wonderful. Wherever you are, you've got to have some kind of community that takes care of each other. On Easter Sunday we cooked and ate together. I thought a lot about home and church and all the Easter traditions that have always been so important to me. But I was home with my friends, looking out at all of the beautiful Eugene flowers. That's home to me, too.

Happy Easter.