Spring rituals

The snow that keeps falling every night is usually gone by midday, melting in the warmth of the spring sun. The daffodils are not in bloom yet, but green shoots are appearing everywhere. Red-haired Sister and her kids have arrived in town for their Easter visit. They've brought one of their extras, Russian Girl, who has grown about a foot since the last time I saw her. My kids are off from school for Good Friday, and they are out playing Ultimate Frisbee, despite the cold.

On Palm Sunday, we went to an art show held every spring at a local church. Urban Sophisticate Sister came home for the art show; she, my brother, and my father usually enter paintings or pastels. We walked around the building, talked to some of the local artists, ate the food that was passed around on big round trays, drank red punch, and looked at all the artwork. Several rooms were filled with paintings from professional artists, but farther in, long halls were crowded with work done by local high school students. I am always amazed at the work done by these kids half my age: paintings, sculptures, pastels, and all kinds of experimental art.

The only part of Holy Week that has seemed strange this year is that my Wonderful Beautiful Smart Daughter is not here. She's spending the weekend in European Country Shaped Like A Boot, visiting the City With the Colosseum Where Crowds Used to Watch Christians Get Thrown to the Lions. Four weeks from today, she will return to Snowstorm City; her brothers and the extras in the household have begun the countdown. Only 28 days until she returns!

Easter rituals have changed as my children have gotten older. We don't have any candy in the house – none of the kids eat candy although their mother most certainly does — and we won't be searching for plastic eggs. My oldest two nieces, Red-haired Niece and Schoolteacher Niece, won't be home: they will be meeting Urban Sophisticate in Big City Like No Other for Easter Brunch. But my brother and Drama Niece will join us for Easter dinner for the first time in over a decade. We'll still have seventeen people at dinner on Sunday.

We will gather at my mother's house to eat a big dinner and talk, and then probably eat some more. We will likely take a walk, even if it's snowing. The trails at Pretty Colour Lake are muddy and wet, but the ice melts more each day. Easter in Snowstorm Region very often includes mud and snow, but none-the-less, the rituals of Holy Week still remind me that warmer weather is coming.



Pretty Colour Lake in April.