The Easter Holiday

My children make Easter so much fun. Even my grownup children (except Wesley) come home every year to do the Big Race for the Easter Candy. It takes me probably three hours to hide all the candy and it takes probably three minutes for my children to find it all. Every year there is a play-fight to see who will leave my bedroom first, since this is an advantage in getting the most candy in the fastest time. This year, since Steve had surgery on his leg and still had about 15 staples in it, and since Kjersti was 8 ½ months pregnant, they got to go first. The other kids did “Rock, Paper, Sizzors” to decide the rest of the order. Who knows who gets the most candy? It seems irrelevant, really, when the race is over. All the children sit in the front room and count their “Bunny Munny.” The Bunny Munny comes in various denominations and it isn’t always the one with the most who has the highest count. (Like you could have ten ones, but it wouldn’t be as much as three fives.) Theoretically, the one with the highest count wins, but then the married children combine their winnings with their partners’ to muddy the waters – “Two bank accounts equal one bank account” – and Wes takes his “Candy Tax.” Then the bargaining starts. “I’ll give you all my special dark chocolate and three caramel eggs if you give me your Reeses White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup.” There is always enough candy to go around, plus some. The Law of Abundance and my knack for over-doing things guarantees that. But it all makes for a great time.

After the Big Race this year, the whole family went to hear Wes speak at the Church of Religious Science. I have always loved to hear him speak and he was as good as I remember. He got a standing ovation in the second session. Then he and Joy came to have Red Beans and Rice with the family and we played some games.

I agree with Ms. Armstrong on dooce.com when she says that you can’t explain the connection between Easter and the Easter Bunny to a two-year-old. “Look, Sweetie, this giant bunny with a bow-tie is going to break into the house while you are sleeping because Jesus died for your sins.” But there is nothing mysterious about all the love that passes between us when we celebrate the holiday together. The combination of personalities in our family is an unmistakable synergy. It feeds me and renews my soul.

Depths and Heights

On Friday, March 31, GBA’s Florida dealer, Terry Eiland, and a passenger who was flying with him were killed in an accident in Terry’s SparrowHawk. They had been attending an air show called Benson Days and were returning from a late breakfast when the accident occurred. There were three gyroplanes flying together and the pilot who was behind Terry saw him start to descend. It was just a normal descent at first, but then it got steeper until the aircraft was in a nosedive. There was an explosion when it hit the ground and the resulting fire burned about a hundred acres. The FAA and the NTSB are investigating, as well as some of our own people, but the cause may never be known. It may have been a mechanical failure, pilot error or some health problem, like a heart attack. There wasn’t much left of the aircraft or the bodies after the fire. We were all quiet and sad last week at the office. My boss, Dan Banks, was asked to fly to Florida to offer his expertise in the investigation, so the customer support – such as it was – was left to me. In addition to filling in for Dan, I was also asked to fill in for the temporary receptionist who was sick the whole week. (She had been filling in for our permanent receptionist who was out for some surgery.) So, needless to say, I was pretty schizophrenic last week, trying to do my own and two other jobs.

I did take an evening to go with Danae to see Kurt Bestor. We had a lovely and delicious dinner to begin with and dessert was served as the “business” of the evening was conducted. I was impatiently long-suffering (is that an oxymoron?) through all the paralegal rah-rah stuff and the first few speakers. I wondered why anyone would plan to do anything else when Kurt Bestor was there to speak and perform. The other people who spoke were just wasting time in my opinion. But of course, as you all know, Kurt Bestor is my boyfriend and I was only there to see and hear him. When it was finally his turn, he used the fact that he was the “keynote speaker” to use “keys” and “notes” on the piano, which I thought was clever. Danae has already explained that he played several songs, each of which he used as an illustration of a lesson he had learned in life. It was very enjoyable and I was so glad to be there. It was a small enough group that I actually got to meet him and have my picture taken with him. That was embarrassing, because who am I to him? But he was very gracious and I am happy to have the picture as proof that he actually put his arm around me!

Giant Burger

2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon horseradish, drained

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ground beef and salt; divide in half. Pat one half evenly in 8-inch pie pan. Mix cream cheese, mustard and horseradish; spread to within 1 inch of edge of meat in pan.

Shape remaining meat into 8-inch circle. Place on cheese mixture; pinch edge to seal securely. Bake uncovered 45 minutes for medium, 55 minutes for well.

Remove meat to large serving plate. Cut into wedges. Makes 4 to 6 servings.