This Is How We Do It

Well, here are the Weatherford/Hartmann kids which of course means the Moon grand-kids with their Easter booty and being part of this family, things were not exactly what we might call traditional.
What is Owen wearing?

And what is Gibson wearing?

Well, you see- Owen is Good Easter and Gibson is Bad Easter and as the younger kids raced about finding their eggs, Gibson would chase them and if he touched one, they had to freeze. Like Freeze Tag only for Easter and in costumes. 
Makes sense, right?
And the frozen person could not move until Good Easter Owen came and touched them and they could resume their racing about in search of eggs. 

I am not sure where this idea came from, nor do I know where the costumes came from but they're pretty hysterical. It did add interest to what can become a rather boring tradition over the years. The little kids loved it. Many eggs were found, most of them plastic with candy or money in them but there were some really truly dyed eggs too. 

Those were made into deviled eggs and since Lauren brought some she'd made, there were plenty for all.

Lauren has recently just become the deli manager at the same Publix where Lily works. She's been a deli manager for a long time but they move her around when things need shaking up and tightened up. This is a cool move for her because that Publix is very close to their house whereas the one she was working at was way over in Student Land by FSU. 
Cool, Lauren!

When May and Jessie got here, I gave them both lovely aprons to wear with their Easter finery. Here's May in hers, making her salad.

I did not get a full-on picture of Jessie in her fancy apron but here she makes an appearance in a picture I took of Lily and her eldest son.

Every time I see Owen I cry. How is this possible? 

We surely did miss Rachel and Hank. Rachel is doing quite well. Her incision is healing up nicely and the pain for which she got the surgery in the first place is better than before surgery and is supposed to improve as time goes on. Which is wonderful but I know she's bored out of her skull. Well, Hank told me that. "She's bored out of her skull," he said. 

Jessie and Vergil dropped off some of the dinner for them on their way home and here is what the meal looked like.

Do you like the serving dishes? 

It was a beautiful meal but not really overwhelming. By the time we'd eaten and people got their leftovers to take home, there wasn't much left. And I am proud that so much of it was homegrown. The lettuces in the salad, the peas, the collard and mustard greens. The deviled eggs were from a neighbor of Jessie's who has chickens. The bread and the biscuits were made with love as was everything else, really. 
But you may ask- what biscuits?

Y'all, I made a rather huge batch of biscuits, my biggest skillet full, and those things disappeared in a red hot second. 
Excuse me while I say, "They were fucking amazing."

Here we are at table. 

All except for these three who agreed to eat on a quilt picnic style. 

"Maggie," I said, "Do you really want to be remembered forever for having a biscuit in your mouth at Easter?"
"Yes," she said. "I do."

The kids had all been playing whiffle ball in the backyard before we got the meal on the table and afterwards too. They are going to sleep good tonight. 
Guess who else is going to sleep good tonight?

Xena, aka Large Marge. It looks like her eyes are open there but they aren't. She was already crashed out. She was a pretty good girl, considering she's still very much a puppy. She didn't jump on people, she sort of responds to commands, and she is absolutely filled with the joy of life. She was in ecstasy, playing ball with the kids, racing around the back yard.

Before everyone left, we had a Gibson birthday cake with candles ceremony, "Happy Birthday" being sung in our usual, uh, enthusiastic way. 

Our beautiful Gibson. Our sweet, sweet boy. 
He, too, towers over me now. 

Before everyone left, I told Lauren that I had something I needed to tell her. 
"You're mad because I didn't make the sweet potato casserole?"
"No. That was just a mild disappointment. What I wanted to tell you was," and here I lowered my voice, "My favorite part of the entire meal was your ambrosia salad."
I was not lying. 
I will go on about our healthy garden foods and I mean every word I say about them but I'd be a damn liar if I did not admit that Lauren's "salad" with baby marshmallows, pecans, coconut, maraschino cherries, pineapple and probably Cool Whip was the food on my plate that I saved until last because I wanted to keep that sweetness with me as long as I could. 

So it was a great day and I got to see all the grandchildren and get a little love from each and give back as much as they let me. I look around me and I see all these smiling beautiful faces and I hear our laughter as we discuss the profound and profane, the cosmic and the comic, recent events and long-ago memories. Oh, the memories. 
I feel like okay, maybe I didn't screw it all up. 
And when Owen hugs me, which he often does, he always says, "I love you Mer," and I think, "Yeah. I got a few things right." 

But I will say, as I always must- they were born this way. 
And how incredibly fortunate I am. 

Okay. So. Ms. Moon- what was your Easter outfit? Did you gussy up and be all fancy?
Well of course.
I wore my great-grandmother's pearls. What could be fancier than that? 

God I have a lot of shit hanging around my house. 

I wonder if it's time for a ham sandwich yet? I will ponder that. 

Love...Ms. Moon