Holiday triathalon

I have not recovered yet from our insane Easter whirlwind. We spent the day yesterday driving from meal to meal, relative to relative. Feeling hurried. It was fun, but holidays feel like triathlons now. I should vow to not complain as I have yet, despite my threats, taken any action to stop the holiday nomadic thing we have going on. At the very least I should train for the holiday.

In a nutshell, H and S slept over at their grandparents house Saturday night. J and I drove down to meet them, go to church, go to lunch, drive home, see what the Easter Bunny brought for the girls, let the dogs out, go to my grandmothers house for dinner.

The girls had fun at their sleepover- it may have been a little much for S, though. J and I got there early Sunday morning (not rested at all. Ridiculous.) S gave me the most horrible look when we walked in the door. A blank up and down stare. As if to say "Oh. Look who it is. You think you can just walk in now, do ya?" No reaction. I put my arms out to pick her up. Her look said "if you insist." A few seconds later I looked at her, she was biting her lip to keep from crying. She is scared of things that visually don't make sense, like someone in an Easter bunny costume, for instance, but she is tough tough tough about things that get to her emotionally. She played it tough until a few minutes later I was standing on the other side of the table and she couldn't get to me right away. Then the lip pouted out, the full on tears.

The church service was very heavy on the death, in my opinion. It is Easter, J said. I suppose. Today, as suspected, come the questions from H. The life/death questions. But also "who was the first person? Was God the first person? How did God make people?" I started down the rocky road of evolution, don't ask me why, and ended with "God made evolution. People changed over time to be able to live in their changing surroundings. From which evolved the question "did I change to wake up smart today?" Don't ask me why I am trying to explain evolution to someone who thinks yesterday was last year. We met my mother for lunch and I begged her for a life boat for this conversation. She said "thats when you say 'the bible says Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman'" On the drive home I confidently delivered this fact. "Oh." H says. "And who came next?"

We went to lunch with J's family after church. This restaurant has been there close to forever, and their family used to go a lot. I've been a few times, but not in a long time. I am not sure how the absurdity of this place escaped me. The whole place looks like it came from the twilight zone and merged with cracker barrel. From the people working there with their bright blue eyeliner and huge broaches to the taxidermy all over the place, including a 2 headed calf. The kids food comes in buckets and frisbees. There are stain glassed windows. Only stained glass windows, so its dark. Apparently can have a window inscribed in the memory of a loved one, the way you can a park bench, but the shape of the windows, the darkness of the restaurant make the windows look like tomb stones. Somehow, even though the whole place is dark and cemetaryish, there manages to be a good vibe about the place. You expect the Addams family at the head table being all together ooky. Yesterday the Easter Bunny was there.

S is not a fan of people in animal costumes on a good day in a sunny place. The Easter Bunny in this context was creepy. The costume was dingy, the head wasn't all the way tied in back, you could see human hair coming out of the easter bunny head... all in all it was wrong. The bunny passed our table, she looked at it in fearful disbelief from my lap. She looked up at me, "Ska-wee...". But she was ok. Later we took a walk to the bathroom and passed the bunny. S stopped short and slammed one hand over her eyes, and grabbed my hand hard with the other one. He passed us by, thankfully not stopping. Then S screamed. I almost cried- it was a scream of true horror. She seemed to get over it quickly, but she did seem easily spooked for the rest of the day.

S and H did enjoy their baskets at home- especially the part where the Easter Bunny lapsed on the usual environmental 'grass' and just went for the plastic static stuff that sticks to everything.

I will be cleaning this stuff up forever, and I am finding it in all sorts of unique places- totally worth it to see the girls having so much fun rolling around in fake plastic grass.

Lastly, H excitedly told her dad about the candy slippers in her basket.
Peeps. Who am I to argue? They do look like slippers.