First Easter

As the years go by and I spend more and more time away from home, it is beginning to include holiday’s as well. In Florida (a year and a half ago), I had my first Thanksgiving away from my parents. And this is my very first Easter away from home and parents. You see, “home” isn’t just the place where my parents live and I grew up. Home is the people I grew up with, lived my life with. It’s the family friends that have become my family.

When I was really little, I remember spending Easter with the Ospring’s. I basically spent the first decade of my life attached at the hip to this, my second family. For Easter, we would have egg hunts, and I really enjoyed that. I really have no idea what else we did… it was the egg hunt that I remember (which now strikes me as a tradition very unrelated to the holiday in question)… except I do remember the deviled eggs… I love deviled eggs.

Sometime later, we started joining the Coleman extended family for the afternoon. And I mean the EXTENDED family, including both sets of aunts/uncles and cousins. We did egg hunts with the cousins when they were younger, but soon it evolved into an afternoon filled with food (always deviled eggs) and conversation, and several of our other family friends (with no extended family nearby) began to join us. And since the Coleman’s recently moved to a new house, the images I have in my memory of this holiday on previous years will not be the same anymore… I’m going to be sad to miss this tradition as it moves to a new location.

Because I went to Biola for college, Spring Break was always dependent on Easter… which meant that I was always home. But now I am here, Spring Break is over, and I had no precedent for this holiday in a strange place. And for a while I was a little stressed out about what I was going to do. My friends from school were mostly spending it with family in the area (my family in Chicago invited me, but unfortunately, I don't have the time to make the trip at this point in the semester) and I couldn’t very well invite myself to join another family...

Well, last week I found out that the family in my small group (which basically consists of this set of parents and a bunch of singles in their 20’s, which I actually find to be a great combination/balance) has traditionally hosted a meal and invited the small group (I also received another invitation from friends at church, I don’t know why I was so worried).

So I’ll be with the Thompson’s this year. And I made deviled eggs to bring. :D