Rejoice!

Our Lord has risen from the dead! Rejoice! I hope you are having a very HAPPY and HOLY EASTER, and celebrating this beautiful holiday with friends and family.

My husband and I actually had our big Easter dinner last night, with our second oldest son. He has to go back home right after lunchtime to do some grading and lesson planning (he's a high school math teacher and he has to work tomorrow), so we had to do it early.

Since son #2 (who likes to call himself our favorite) was the only one of our five boys who could be with us this Easter, I told him I would cook whatever his little heart desired for our special holiday dinner.

His heart desired gravy. And something to go under it: potatoes, definitely; and either chicken or turkey--he didn't care which--with stuffing. The only turkeys our grocery store had were gigantic, and my husband I and didn't want to have a lot of leftovers in the fridge, since we're flying off to see some of our other children tomorrow morning. So I decided to make a big roasted stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes, corn...and lots and lots of gravy. Folks, the gravy was flowing like wine here last night. It was a particularly good batch (not to brag or anything), and my amusing son, in between yummy noises, suggested that I should think about opening up a gravy shop. As far as we know it's never been done. I could totally corner that market! Although I'm pretty sure there's not much of a market for shops that sell nothing but gravy...so scratch that idea. But it's flattering that my son believes my gravy could launch a Fortune 500 company. It's sweet the way boys always seem to just love their mamma's cooking.

This morning, my husband and I will attend 9:00 Mass with our son, and then we'll have a nice bacon and egg brunch before he has to head back home.

I consider this a wonderful Easter--although in a perfect world, my entire family would be celebrating it together. But I'll take what I can get, and I'm so grateful for all the blessings my husband and I have been given--in particular, our five sons, our daughter-in-law, and our beautiful twin granddaughters. I'm grateful one of our boys could be with us this weekend. And I'm grateful for gravy, too. And bacon.

HAPPY EASTER!

(Don't you love the vintage Easter artwork? You say you're getting sick of the way I overuse the word "vintage" in this blog? Okay, okay. Don't you love the oldtime Easter artwork? I just love, love, love it!)