Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday in New Jersey. My sister Lucille and brother-in-law Ronnie put out an over the top spread. Ronnie, who is an accomplished chef, made his signature ham (many have tried to copy it, none have succeeded), as well as eggplant parmesan, stuffed shells, mashed sweet potatoes, a delicious lasagne from their daughter-in-law Jessica, and a broccoli and cheese casserole from Nancy. Truly there was enough food to feed several dozen people. I did my share, eating more or less nonstop all day.

The weather was great, hot and sunny, so we were able to sit out on the deck all afternoon, enjoying appetizers and a cooler full of drinks on ice. Lucille's grandkids Jack and Lulu, ages 5 and 4, had a ball and kept the older cousins, Jill and Normunds and Lucille's four kids, busy while we grandparents watched the action. My little brother Bill came up from West Virginia for the weekend. It's always great to see him, and now that he's no longer living in Holland, we'll see him a lot more often. The only disappointment of the day was that my younger sister Joan, returning Saturday from New Mexico, was diverted from the St. Louis airport to Baltimore and missed her connection home. She didn't get home to Sheffield until 11:30 Sunday and had to miss Easter with us. But then again she's retiring in just a few weeks so don't feel sorry for her.

On our way home to Lenox we stopped in my New Jersey hometown, Pompton Lakes, to buy crumb buns from a bakery that has been in town since I was a kid. The crumb buns are amazing, mostly crumb stacked on a wee bit of cake. Unfortunately we didn't get to taste them because the bakery is closed on Monday. But we did take a nice walk through the town to see my old home. The downtown, which had been a shopping hub for the surrounding area when I lived there, had gone downhill in recent years, but looked much nicer this time after a facelift last Fall. Pompton has undergone a lot of growth since my day, but in many ways hasn't really changed. It was a great place to grow up and I'm guessing it still is.

After an overnight in Lenox, we left this morning for the Cape and arrived, fairly wiped out, around noon. Way too much driving over three days, but more than worth it. We had a late lunch, then both napped, pretty much killing the rest of the day. Friday it's back to Boston for my last chemo treatment. Then back again the following Wednesday to meet with the radiology team to plan for the radiation treatment.