Easter Sunday has always been a special day for me. Today, like so many Easters past, today will be fairly scripted, but joyfully so, since the activities are cherished family traditions that have been shared by generations for the better part of thirty years. The day will start off with services at my home church, St. Anne’s Episcopal, followed by a few hours of downtime with my family. Then, around 3 o’clock or so, we’ll head to Saugus to meet my cousins and their various offspring to dine at Frank Giuffrida’s Hilltop Restaurant, pausing on the way for a quick stop at Puritan Lawn Cemetary in Danvers to pay respects to my grandparents, who are buried there.

The script is played out pretty much the same every year – the only difference being the years that have passed, the various circumstances everyone finds themselves in (for better or for worse), and the speed of time itself, but Easter remains an important event in our extended family’s life, since acquaintances are renewed, events of the past years hashed and rehashed over, and important passages in the family’s life – both good and bad – marked. These are days not to be taken for granted, for the time will undoubtedly come when this tradition, like even the best of those, must come to an end, to be remembered fondly with a tear.

But there’s no need to be maudlin today, for Christ is risen, a family gathers together once more, and life seems very very good indeed.

A blessed Easter to you from the Goodboys and Goodboys Nation weblog!