Easter Adventures

I got up much earlier than I usually do on a Sunday in order to head over to Dad and Uncle Ken's for breakfast. I hurriedly ate half of a grapefruit and gulped some tea. Remembered I'd forgotten to sign my Easter cards, so I did that, too. It was sunny again, but even windier than usual, and the wind was chilly. I pulled stockings on under my teal ruffled dress (worn over a peach blouse), grabbed everything I needed, slipped into my good white flats, and hurried out.

The trouble started just half-way down the street. I don't often wear my good white shoes. I don't usually have a reason to wear nice clothes! The shoes were just something I'd bought at Fashion Bug about two or three years ago. Maybe that's why the sole suddenly came unglued on my right one as I rushed. I was in too much of a hurry to go back and change! The other started about half-way to Uncle Ken's. By the time I arrived, the top half of one sole had come off entirely, and the other was just starting to. Jodie drove me back to my place briefly later in the morning to get a pair of sandals. (We also stopped at CVS.)

Thankfully, most of the day went much better after that. Dad, Uncle Ken, Jessa, and Jodie were the only ones home when I arrived. Rose, Craig, and Khai appeared a mere 10 minutes later, and Dolores came shortly after them. Jodie's son TJ and his friend Riff arrived an hour later. I gave Rose the small bouquet of red roses I bought from Flowers By Renee yesterday for her birthday. I have no idea when I'm going to see Khai again, so I gave him his birthday present today. He got the Fisher Price Roly-Poly Apple I bought at the Barrington Antique Center a few weeks ago and a small foam Nerf football. My sisters and I had that Roly-Poly Apple when we were little, and we were making him ring well after the toddler years. We all ate tons of Jodie's French Bread Casserole and canteloupe, grapefruit, and pineapple chunks.

We finally headed to Karen and Jim's house around 12:30, about a half-hour after Rose took both of her boys home for naps. I went with Jodie and Dad; Jessa drove the boys. (Dolores and Uncle Ken were going out to dinner with her family.) Karen and Jim are my cousins who live in a development in largely rural Washington Township with their 6-year-old son CJ. They have a huge house with a big back-yard, and the family tends to hold a lot of parties there.

Karen met us at the door. She was greeting guests; Jim was doing dinner. CJ was hitting golf balls into the kitchen. CJ's always been a golf nut (it's genetic - his father and grandfather are, too) , and it seems his passion has just grown stronger in the last year. He idolizes Tiger Woods (and no, don't try explaining what the guy's been doing these past few years) and wants to join golf tournaments. I spent a lot of the early part of the afternoon outside, watching him hit golf balls around the backyard and babbling on in arcane golf language.

I was delighted to see that Jim's 22-year-old daughter from his first marriage, Taylere, was there as well. She's in her last semester as a journalism student in Rutgers at New Brunswick, and I haven't seen her in ages. She's also friends with Jessa, and they spent a lot of the afternoon together.

I was inside watching Jess and Taylere play some golf video game on the XBox when Karen called us outside. She'd hidden a bag of plastic eggs around their yard. Some had CJ's initials; others were filled with marshmallows. Taylere, CJ, and I went around looking for eggs. I only found two of the marshmallow eggs, but Taylere and especially CJ made excellent hauls.

We finally had dinner around 3PM. There was tons of food, and it was all excellent. Jim made a big ham; Taylere roasted asparagus. Jodie brought macaroni salad. Jim whipped up real au gratin potatoes dripping with cheese. Karin baked croissants from a can. There was also cole slaw and corn, but I didn't have those. We had tea, coffee, tiny tartlets from Desserts By Design in Audubon, and my Orange Coconut Cream Pie and Easter Cookies for dessert.

Eating all that food all day, along with the meat and cheese tray Karen had set out when we first arrived, wasn't the smartest thing I ever did. I spent the next hour or so laying around with a bulging, sore stomach. I first watched Riff play chess with CJ, then giggled at Jessa and Taylere as they got into Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventures Continue for XBox. TJ read quiz questions for a game he plays at one of the local restaurants to us to see if we could guess all of them.

By that point, it was starting to get dark, and I was getting bored with all of the theological and political talk Jim and TJ were doing. Dad, Jodie, and I left around 7. Jessa and the boys opted to stick around a little longer.

The road was perfectly fine until we hit Deptford, where the traffic seemed to just stop. Dad pulled off into the Deptford Mall area, where he and Jodie spent ten minutes arguing over whether or not to go straight or turn back onto the highway. Jodie finally won, and she turned out to be right. According to her cell phone, the highway was clogged for miles because of a nasty accident. I finally got home around 8PM.

I hope all of you had a lovely Easter or Passover! For everyone else, enjoy your spring.