For years Easter has been a big deal in the McCullough household.  Easter meant coloring Easter eggs, new outfits for everyone, a church service longer and more elaborate than the normal Sunday mass, then kids finding their baskets, egg hunts, chowing down on chocolate and jelly beans, capped off with a big family dinner.  It made for lots of photo ops, plenty of joy and laughter and a wonderful celebration, but it’s also a lot of work.

This year was different. My only local grandchildren are grown now, and the others live too far away to be here for Easter.

Instead of the big whoop-de-doo, we went with just the church service and then a nice dinner with very close, old friends.  Not really fancy, but good food, good conversation, a smooth wine, and a pleasant, relaxing time.

For the rest of the day we rested, read, puttered around doing small jobs, and generally relaxed. After a very busy March, it was just what I needed.