Holidays Make Me Miss Family

So I've noticed that holidays make me miss family. Now, I've never been a big holiday person. In fact, my entire family has never been the over-the-top for Easter people. Sure, we've had a nice meal, when we were little there were Easter baskets outside our doors. But, we were never die hard Christians, and with me not being a Christian at all anymore, celebrating Easter is something that lost its touch a while ago... or at least as soon as I outgrew Easter egg hunts and believing in a giant bunny that could lay chocolate eggs and hop around the world.

Since I was thirteen I've lived with just myself and my Dad, and after I entered college be moved two thousands miles away. Meanwhile my Mom already lived thousands of miles away. So, in all honesty, I don't even remember most Easters after I passed the age of ten. There are some vague memories from a couple years back, but that's about it. So, when I remembered this week that Easter was fast approaching my planning basically included writing some clever jokes about the fact that Easter fell on 4/20. "Some will be praising, others will be blazing," being my favorite of all the jokes I came up with.

I was invited to go along with one of my best friends, Joe, to church and then to his family's brunch. Since the alternative was sitting in a dorm room reading manga and watching Firefly for the second day in a row, and since I hadn't seen Joe in far too long (he's been off at college doing something with his life), I gladly accepted the offer. I didn't expect to become so emotional throughout the course of the day, however.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am THE most emotional person I know. I cry during hallmark commercials and cartoons. The Land Before Time series makes me tear up. But holidays in recent years, particularly Easter, kind of remind me of a dusty childhood toy you find under your bed after years. You pick up that old Thomas the Tank Engine and turn it over a couple times saying, "Aw, I remember this. I was so little when this was a thing of importance in my life" before finding an appropriate donation bin or trash receptacle to discard good ol' Thomas. That's the extent of my emotions towards Easter... well, it was until today.

I got up at 7 to get ready in time for church. I even wore a dress and tights and the whole nine yards. Joe and his family picked me up and we went to the church, where a band sang and testimonials were made, and hearts were touched. And I enjoyed it. I looked around at the families surrounding me, the parent's eyes filled with love and joy, the children's eyes filled with hungry excitement for chocolate and giant, fictitious bunny rabbits. Even without Christianity, there's something about this holiday that made me miss my family. We went onto brunch where Joe's family laughed making food, hid Easter eggs for us to find, played games.

The entire time I had so much fun. It was the kind of fun that I don't remember having around this holiday for a long time. And I remembered why I loved Easter as a child. I remembered that I loved my family, and that I wanted to be near them. I wanted to help them make food, and play games, and everything of the sort. I really miss them right now.

But in one month, I'll be moving back out near them and next Easter I'll make sure to be near so that I can do all of that. But for today, I will reflect on the fun I had with Joe's family... and I'll watch Game of Thrones. Because, come on, it's a new episode. There's no way I'm going to miss that.