Happy Easter Friday

I know that Easter means a lot of different things to different people and families.  But today, I want to tell you about how it works for the Kross family.

I have had the same Easter basket since I was 6 months old.  My mom made it for me out of blue, pink, and white yarn.  That Easter basket has travelled with us from Illinois out to Oregon, moved between at least 4 houses, and is older than my brother.

So, every year, my mom pulls out the Easter baskets from her secret holiday stuff hiding place: my pastel macramé basket of joy, a stand in for my brother and his wife, and usually some additional basket for an orphan friend or two who joins my family for the holiday that year.  She fills them with that weird shredded green plasticky stuff, and anxiously waits for us to show that same excitment from 1989.  The best Easter baskets I ever had were filled with Reese's and Lego’s.  There are few greater gifts in the world and I'm grateful that this part of Easter hasn’t changed.

Now that my brother and I are grown, the big thing that has changed for my family is that Easter is a pretty casual holiday.  It no longer requires that I wear an ugly dress chosen by my grandmother but instead, I get to wear sweatpants while my dad makes "Easter Paella.”  A few years ago, Dad travelled to Spain on a business trip and of all the things that happened on that trip, Paella is the thing that stood out for him.

Happy Friday.  Happy Easter.  Happy Lego’s.  Happy Reese’s eggs.  And perhaps, if you’re lucky, happy Paella.

Image from here.