Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Easter 2010, Come and Gone

How was everyone's Easter celebration? I can't believe another one has come and gone. I love Easter but this year I was approaching it with a bit of trepidation. See, my oldest girl, wasn't going to be here. She had to prepare for a missions trip that she was leaving on today and it would have just been too time crunched to come home for the Easter holiday. This was the first time ever my little family wasn't all together for a major holiday. I tried not to think to hard about it. Tried to push it to the back of my mind.

To help me with that, I invited 8 other family over for Easter lunch. I figured if I kept busy that day I wouldn't have time to notice too badly she wasn't here. I had a plan. I had to have turkey because I needed to use up the one sitting in my freezer. So I thought I would cook that Saturday, nice and leisurely, and have it carved and ready to go for Sunday after church. I thought I'd keep it simple with just easy to prep veggies, carrots, peas, potatoes. Yup, nice and simple.

Yes, but this is my world we're talking about. First I forgot to take out the turkey Friday night. So instead of it being in the oven by noon on Saturday it was in the sink underwater starting the thaw. It made it in the oven at 7 p.m. At 1 a.m. I finally had it cooked and packed away and got to bed. Hubby graciously carved it Sunday morning before church.

Now we were supposed to race home immediately after church so that I could get the nice, simple veggies on the stove cooking all ready for the company coming at 1:30. Yup, nice and simple. Except we kept misplacing family members at church. Twenty minutes later we finally left. But the plan was still in place. I was patting myself on the back for my plan, simple was especially good now that we were a tad behind. But what's a holiday dinner without a few little glitches, right? I'm so smart having a simple plan. Pat, pat, pat on the back some more. That is until I proceeded to plug up the kitchen garberator and pipes with the potato peelings. And plug it I did. Big time. Not nice and handy a foot into the pipes. Way down somewhere in the basement. Way, way down. Never let it be said I do things halfway. It took my hubby and two brother's in law about 3 hours to unplug the thing. I very charitably let them take a break to eat. My hubby is still talking about the wonderful, simple Easter we had. I am now no longer allowed to garberate potato peelings. So much for nice and simple. It was interesting trying to cook for 12 people with no access to a kitchen sink. Fun times. But hey, I kept busy and didn't have time to dwell on the fact that my oldest wasn't there. Funny buy coincidentally neither did hubby.

In spite of it all, dinner was still delicious, albeit not quite on the table on time and with no pictures. We overate as par usual and had a lovely afternoon visiting, laughing (well except for hubby, he was concentrating too hard on trying to get that plug moving) and celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. I still missed my girl horribly but I made it through without tears. And we still had a load of dishes running in the dishwasher that evening. A lovely reminder that I am still very thankful for the day and age that God allowed me to be born in. For a while there I thought I'd be hauling my dirty dishes down to the river in remembrance of our pioneer predecessors.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a quiet Easter day and visited relatives on Easter Monday. I'm sorry your Easter Day had so many catastrophes, although I'm glad to read it's not just me who always forgets to get frozen food out of the freezer in time! I'm hopeless at organising food, I'd be a hopeless chef.

You must be so proud of your daughter.

I totally agree with your point about dishwashers and the time we've been born into - I regularly praise God for my kitchen helpers!

ellen b. said...

Oh man that is how it goes sometimes! Ugh. Good reminder about throwing potato peelings in the garbage. We didn't have our middle son here for our celebration. He'll be missing a lot of holidays with us. It really is nice having the modern conveniences when they don't stop up :0)

Donnetta said...

Oh No! I had a similar experience one year when I went all out and invited numerous guests for Christmas dinner. My kitchen sink plugged as well. Oh I can relate...

So glad to hear that you were still able to enjoy it overall, even with your girl not home to celebrate. And think of all the memories that were made.

Islandsparrow said...

I'm sorry you were missing your gril and that things were a bit rough for your dinner - but isn't it great that we can write about the almost disasters?? Somehow it makes things a whole lot easier, when I'm experiencing numerous setbacks, to think "oh this will make a good blog post." :)

Islandsparrow said...

oops girl not gril

Jientje said...

Even though things did not go as smoothly as you had planned, you still had a great time!

Barbara H. said...

We had our first "absent child" holiday Christmas before last when my middle son went to visit his then-fiance (now wife) over Christmas. I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be, but I had my moments, for sure.

I believe in keeping company meals simple, too, because all too often the "best laid plans" do go awry -- and better for simple ones to do that than elaborate ones! I'm sure it was great.

I have never heard the word "garberator." I'm guessing it is like a garbage disposal? What a frustrating time for it to get plugged, but I like what Islandsparrow said. :-)

Karen said...

This will be an Easter for you to remember, that's for sure! "Remember in 2010 when . . . " By comparison, the rest will be easy-peasy!

It's tough having a family member not at the table. You were wise to invite extras and . . . keep it simple:)

(Not taking the turkey out in time. That is something I would do:?

Carrie said...

Well, it certainly sounds memorable!!! Wow!

This was the first year our Easter truly WAS plain and simple - and it was delightful! Quiet, peaceful and for that I am grateful.

I am glad to hear that you at least stayed busy. I remember the first time I wasn't able to make it back home as a single adult. I remember my mom trying to put a brave face on things over the phone and kinda failing miserably. =D But it sure was nice to know that i was missed!!!

Melanie @ This Ain't New York said...

Wow! Bless you.

Sandra said...

You'll definitely never forget this Easter....I tell you, sometimes things just go that way.

Glad you were able to make the best of it.

nikkipolani said...

I know just how you feel about attempts at "simplicity." But I'm glad y'all survived. I'm glad you didn't have to have a historical re-enactment for the washing dishes part.

Marg said...

You know, it's years since I last remembered some of those feelings. It's very hard to bring all of us together anymore...but I love the phone calls and we make do...as we know they are slowly building their own lives...giving shape to the world.
It's funny how your day was so unpredictable. Sounds like my weekend to Whistler with the family.