Easter In Never Land

I awoke too early to the warmest Easter we've had in...since I can remember. It was already in the 60s at 8AM. I tried to sleep longer, but I just couldn't bring myself to on Easter morning. Old habits die hard, I guess. I wrote in my journal, then..heard the phone ring.

It was Mom, beating me to the punch on a Sunday for once. She was having an enjoyably quiet Easter, just doing things around the house on her day off. My stepfather is out fishing, and Keefe went with Anny and her boys to the opening day of the Wildwood Boardwalk. Mom said she'd probably join them later.

I hung around the apartment for a little while longer. I made a Cranberry-Coconut Coffee Cake. (Next time, I think I'll add vanilla.) I watched The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. I had no idea when I was supposed to meet Dad and Jodie to go to Karen and Jim's house, so I headed there around quarter after 11.

Turns out I was too early. They weren't even dressed yet! I ran to CVS for contact solution, then came back and chatted with Uncle Ken and Dolores. As with last year, they were going to meet us later. So were Jodie's son TJ and his girlfriend Ashley. Alas, no Jessa this year - she'd opted to spend the day before going back to college with friends. Karen and Jim's daughter Taylere had apparently opted for the same, as had Jodie's younger son Jessie.

We finally drove up to Washington Township around quarter of 1. My older cousins Karen and Jim live in a brand-new housing development there, in a huge house with a big backyard. When we arrived, the older adults chatted while I played with Karen and Jim's son CJ in his swing set. Peter Pan is his new thing; all he wanted to do was fight pirates and find treasure, and I was more than happy to comply.

Around 2, CJ's best friend Craydon and his parents arrived. Apparently, the boys had planned on having a mini-Easter egg hunt in Karen and Jim's backyard. Karen and Craydon's mother hid plastic eggs filled with candy that had the boys' initials on them outside. There were 24, and each boy had half. If they found the other boys' egg, they could call the boy and trade them, or wait until they went inside. They were so funny, running all over the yard! Craydon's parents and I got some great shots of both boys searching for eggs.

I played with both boys at the swing set for a while, joined by Ashley. She turned out to be a very sweet young lady from Philadelphia who had left home at 17, worked in a Philly restaurant for a while, then decided she wanted to go back to school to study radiology. I had some nice chats with her after the boys decided to go back inside. TJ has good taste.

Craydon and his parents left for their own dinner at their house, then we had ours. It was a big one, too. Turkey, green salad with tomatoes and red peppers, green beans, stuffing, Dad's macaroni salad, and rolls. After dinner, we broke out Karen's cupcakes, the remaining bags of Easter candy from the boys' egg hunt, and my Orange Coconut Cream Mousse Pie for dessert. All were big hits. Karen's cupcakes probably just came from a mix, but they came out pretty well for someone who says she can't cook. I especially liked her heavy glaze-icing. That's one I can't manage.

While most of the family sat outside and talked politics, I sat inside with CJ and watched his newest interest, Return to Neverland. This is one of the better films to come out of Disney's obsession with making a sequel to everything in its vaults in the 90s and early 2000s. The year is now 1940, and London is getting smashed by the Blitz. Wendy Darling is all grown up, with children of her own. She's teaching her son Danny to believe in all the tales of Peter Pan that she loved, but she's having a hard time with her sensible daughter Jane. Jane took her father going to war very hard, and she's trying to act "grown up" and put "childish" things behind her, stories of Never Land included. It isn't until pirates turn up literally on her doorstep and she finds herself in the very place in her mother's stories that Jane begins to wonder if there's some truth to her mother's fantasies after all, and to fantasy and the very idea of childhood itself.

Peter Pan was never my favorite Disney movie, but in this case, it's not Disney's fault. It's more the source material. I'm not crazy about Peter Pan in general, which is a lot of fun (all the pirates and Indians), but also incredibly dated. I never liked Peter's character, either. I always found it grating. That may be why I enjoyed this so much. The focus here isn't really on Peter, despite the title. Jane's the main character; we see Never Land through her jaded eyes, though the eyes of a child who has seen unspeakable horrors and needs to re-learn what childhood is all about. The animation isn't bad for Disney's television division, either, which may be why this is one of the few Disney 90s sequels granted a theatrical release.

The older adults (and TJ) just seemed to talk forever, and I just got drowsier and drowsier, even after Return to Never Land ended. I watched TJ play with his Star Wars toys for a while, but even that got boring. It took forever to get Jodie and Dad out the door. I understand - we don't see all of our relatives every day, and TJ and Ashley have school - but I was tired and it all just seemed so LOOONG.

The drive home was long, too. It was fine until we hit barely-moving traffic on Route 55. We passed by police cars; there must have been an accident. Dad finally got off on the Deptford ramp, and we drove home from the Deptford Mall area.

I hope those of you who celebrate it had a wonderful Easter!