A Cold, Rainy and Fun Easter Sunday on April Fool’s day

It was cold, drizzly, and generally miserable outside, but our annual Easter family gathering was a huge success anyway. There were 50 of us—the biggest Easter ever—at Allen and Lorie’s. How did our Easter grow to 50 people? What happened to population control? Lorie had put us on notice, sending a message to bring coats and remember they had twenty acres for us to roam.

I think only my sister (and fellow writer) Alice’s family came from out of town. Brother Allen (the dog trainer extraordinaire), or actually his wife, Lorie and her father, Larry (our sculptor extraordinaire) set up heaters and tables in the garage, so Lorie didn’t have to put her furniture in storage to accommodate all of us.

We had three exchange students, a college student from France who came with my daughter, Jeri, and two high school boys from Germany, brought by niece Abbie, Tulsa’s cycle/yoga guru. There were lots of rugrats, but they stayed in one of the back bedrooms where there were Legos. Niece Randilu went back to check on them and came out declaring, "I call not having to pick up Legos."

It was so cold and miserable outside, not enough people brought colored (or not colored) eggs to hunt. And for the egg salad sandwiches that are our tradition (made with chopped green olives), so grandson John went to a nearby dollar store and bought another two dozen. We came close to running out of food for those unfortunates who were last in line despite two big pans of cheese potatoes, a large sliced ham, salads, baked beans, and a plethora of appetizers and desserts.

Jeri posted on FB yesterday that all the eggs the kids found outside were plastic, so the egg salad was a little crunchy. Hiding the eggs didn’t take long, and finding them didn’t either. No one wanted to be out there in the cold. I think the high for the day was 41 degrees.

Saturday was a nice day, so Alice’s granddaughters got to ride Uncle Allen’s horse. With a saddle "so they could use a seatbelt." Last year Ada Jane fell off, but it didn’t deter her. I think Vincent and Heather are going to have to buy a pony sooner than later.

Alice had intended to stay for a week so we could have another sister's writers workshop, but Angela, brother Phil's daughter wanted her birthday celebration at Aunt Alice's, and Phil was coming. So she went home. She'll be back in a couple of weeks and we will WORK. HARD. Phil is another of my sibling writers.

All in all, as I said, Best Easter Ever. Thanks, Allen and Lorie and Larry and Anna.

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