We don’t normally go into Easter weekend with any grand ideas or plans.  Our childhood family traditions have died away and we tend to just wing it each year.  Even my Catholic self has let go of the pressure of going to mass.  I don’t go any other Sunday, why fake it?  I’m fine with it all to be honest.  The normal holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc) is stuffed full of tradition, a million plans and commitments and each year it gets more difficult.  Easter has this way of sneaking up on us and being a bit more relaxed.

For the first time in several weekends, my husband was around for the whole weekend.  The weather looked to be warm and perfect.  The only plans we had were for my in-laws to come to dinner on Sunday.  Friday night I let Cora sit in her high chair and dye eggs.  I didn’t care about the mess or doing anything perfect.  We dunked her in the tub when she was done and put her to bed.  Cracked but colorful eggs drying on the counter.

We found ourselves, with Cora, lazily running errands on Saturday.  No hurry, no rush, no excitement.  A lazy lunch, letting her run crazy at Babies R Us to pick out new stuff, a trip to Home Depot where we bought everything we didn’t plan on and we let other families rush around us at Target while we picked out our own dinner items I had yet to really plan for.

Sunday morning, there was no rush for much of anything.  In fact, Cora was still asleep at 8:30, which has never happened. It caused the hubs to go in and wake her up because he started worrying.  The mamma in me knew better than to wake a sleeping child so I just sat and enjoyed my coffee.  Cora finally came out and played with the little Easter basket of goodies we put together for her.  We pulled on clothes and headed out in the beautiful morning to plant the trees we bought on a whim the day before.  We taught Cora how to dig up the earth, hold slimy worms and put it all back just a little bit better than how we started.  Five new trees now lined our backyard and I felt a bit closer to God in that moment than I think I would have in church.

I made the full meal of ham, potato’s, corn….etc. We sat with the in-laws, drank wine, cleaned up, let the baby run and collect eggs scattered in the yard. She napped, we sat in the sun, we invited friends over, we sat around the fire-pit, we watched the sun go down, put the baby to bed, poured more wine, laughed and enjoyed the evening.

It was an unplanned weekend with zero expectations but it became the holiday weekend full of memories that I can never replace.  I’m learning more and more that if I just let go of that need to create perfection, it will just find me.  I can do that quite often but I do struggle around any holiday, especially since having Cora.  I want her to have the memories that I hold dear from my own childhood.  But traditions and memories can’t always be forced, some times they just have to happen.

I can tell you, this weekend, I often took a step back and really looked at my life.  The safety of our home, a great husband, a healthy kiddo, and a kick ass dog.  I saw it in those moments when I stood with my husband, outside, and watched a huge storm roll in through the night sky.  I saw it when my daughter ran between us, and explored all the landscaping at Home Depot.  I saw it as friends popped in for a drink and a sit down around the fire as the stars exploded around us.  It is during those little moments of life that we truly live and I’m so grateful for it.

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend!