It's All About Family

We enjoy being able to play host to a family get-together, especially when both sides of the family have an opportunity to all gather.

Now I'm not saying we'd want to do it for every holiday, lol, but we do enjoy being able to have a chance to have everyone gather here in Marietta at least once a year.

It was great to have everyone here for Easter Sunday yesterday. We did miss having both of Barb's grandmothers with us, but their hearts were with us we know, and our thoughts were definitely with them.

And we did miss having my sister's family here, although we certainly understand that it was time for them to spend a holiday with her husband's family.

But we did have great representation of both families generations, from our wise elders to our smallest pipsqueaks, from our newest puppy to our mean, old cat Freckles.

Ellis, one of our pipsqueaks, really did not want to wear a tie yesterday, I've been told. But when he heard that Freckles wanted him to wear a tie he had no problem donning the tie.

I answered the door when Ellis arrived and he shot passed me saying, "Happy Easter Freckles!" Freckles, of course, was hiding beneath our bed upstairs. He stayed there all day. Ellis would not be denied the chance to say "Hi" and "Happy Easter" to Freckles so we escorted him upstairs and let him talk to Freckles under the bed.

The simple joy of having so much family together in this busy world was certainly the highlight of the day.

The ham, I've heard, was also a star.

The secret?

It's all about the butcher, Groff's in Elizabethtown. No two smokehouses are alike, and Groff's is just head-and-shoulders above them all. Get a ham at Groff's, glaze it with some Dr. Pepper and brown sugar (that's right Dr. Pepper), and there 'ya go, one unbelievable ham.

The most touching thing to me, by far, was how everyone muscled me out of the kitchen when the meal was done and took over all the clean-up duties. I really didn't expect that. I tried to resist, but to no avail. "Go sit down," I was told repeatedly. I lingered, worked on stripping down the ham, but eventually had to give in as the kitchen became more and more populated with family pitching in to help clean everything up.

Thank you.

It's great to see the family come together for the holiday, and it's even more touching to see the family come together to work together.

It's an Easter we will remember for sure.