Category: Family

So this is just a little late here, but Happy Easter to you all. I didn’t get a chance to post on Easter as it’s been a pretty busy week. But of course, that didn’t stop me from stuffing myself with too many Peeps that I am officially done with that marshmallow treat for the year.

Easter Sunday was spent with family. First up was the traditional Easter Sunday Mass with the parents at the church that I went to grade school. (Unfortunately, the grade school has since then closed.) As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m not exactly a “practicing Catholic,” meaning I’m not one to go to mass every weekend. Not that I don’t have a strong belief in my faith, I just don’t think that having to go to mass every week best demonstrates how I practice the teachings of God and Jesus that I was taught growing up. I guess you could really call me a “Lazy Catholic” in that sense. But ask me if I believe in and practice the principle of “Treat others as you would like to be treated,” you bet I do. That’s the part of my faith that I strongly believe in.

But imagine Hubby & I walking into the church just as the mass was about to start. We’re looking around for my parents, as we agreed to meet there. Finally, we find them about 5 rows from the front, and sit in an area that’s in direct eye sight of the parish priest. So as a cell phone goes off just before the first reading, I happen to see the priest do an almost imperceptible roll of the eyes as the reader at the lectern makes the brief announcement to make sure that all cell phone volumes are turned down.

And that’s when I make a grab for my purse to make sure I turn my phone volume down. Imagine, if you will, my cell phone going off in the middle of mass. The sound that would be coming from my purse, coincidently located under my chair, would be singing “Devil Inside / Devil Inside / Every single one of us / The Devil Inside.”

Yeah, a song from one of my favorite bands, INXS. Good thing I was with my parents and my Aunts & Uncles from my side of the family were attending mass at another church at the same time, because that’s the ringtone I assigned to them. 😛 I’m sure that the parish priest would have luuurved me … and my poor Mom probably would have died of embarrassment.

After mass, we headed over to my Uncle’s house (my Dad’s brother) for lunch. My two other Aunts (Dad’s sisters) and their daughters were going to be their too (one of which drove NINE hours from Chicago this past Friday in the midst of a snow storm). I specifically mention that this was my Dad’s side of the family because out of the five siblings (his other brother was in the Philippines), three of them have had either a heart attack or open heart surgery (both, in my Dad’s case). And because heart disease is known to be hereditary, the two other siblings are now terrified that they will also be susceptible to these same issues. As my Hubby & I sat at the “kids'” table with my two younger cousins, we all couldn’t help but laugh at the conversation going on in the next room. “How high is your cholesterol?” “How much exercise are you doing?” “When’s the last time you went to the doctors for a routine check-up?”

And don’t think us “kids” didn’t notice that instead of a nice, big, juicy, fatty Easter ham as our main dish … we had a healthy broiled fish. Yes, that’s right … fish. And it’s not like we didn’t (as “good Catholics”) just finish 6 consecutive Fridays, plus Ash Wednesday, eating fish.. But yes, us cousins couldn’t help but laugh.

After lunch, Hubby & I set up our Wii console on my Uncle’s large screen TV, and the games began. The cousins played a bit of Wii Sports and eventually got the “elders” involved as well. The youngest of my cousins actually “boxed” against my Uncle … and WON. This same cousin also beat this same Uncle, along with my Mom and our Aunt in bowling. And my other cousin? Well, she helped us FINALLY get past Slash in the medium level of Guitar Heroes III (and for that, Hubby & I are incredibly grateful!).

Overall, it was a pretty fun day. Probably one of the best Easters we’ve had in a while. And quite honestly, one where I didn’t find myself obsessively thinking about how unfair it was that I wasn’t able to participate in all the child-related events (-ie- Easter Bunny pictures, Easter Egg hunts, dressing up the young’ins in the traditional Easter Sunday best) surrounding this holiday.

Wow. That’s a pretty amazing feat!