Ho Chi Mama: Adventures of a VietMOM: Here comes Buddha Cottontail...

Checking for Buddha Belly Lint

It's school vacation! Easter break has finally arrived, and as we contemplate what to "do" for Easter, I realize this year is going to be a bit of a departure from the norm. The "norm" finds us dragging the kids out of bed at 3:00 a.m. and piling them into the car in the dark and the cold. We drive to Stowe and ride the gondola to the top of the mountain for sunrise service. It has become a sort of family torture tradition. At 3:00 a.m. it never feels like a good idea with tired, cranky kids whining in the back seat...wondering why we can't be "normal" and sleep in, go out to brunch and hunt for eggs like their friends. I usually just tell them to stuff a Peep in it, and they grumpily go back to inhaling candy in the dark. By 6:30 a.m., we are usually wind burned, frozen and grinning from ear to ear...grateful that we made the effort, yet again, to continue our tradition. It's not the sunrise that brings us back or the sermon (sorry). It's not the hot chocolate and donuts that await at the top of the mountain or the singing. Nope. It's the trip down.

Once we have endured the car ride, the gondola ride, the singing and the sermon (and occasionally a sunrise), we get to head down the mountain. We're all skiers, but on Easter Sunday we shun the boards and opt for butts. We all wear our slipperiest, waterproof pants, seek out the iciest patches on the mountain and run, jump and slide our way from top to bottom. It's a good 45 minutes of hard core, bone rattling sliding - sometimes at dangerous speeds and other times depressingly slowly in sticky slush. Last Easter I realized that I am getting a little old for this extreme sport. I was sore (as always), and I ended up sporting ugly purple bruises on all of my sliding surfaces for a good ten days. Oooooh...but it was worth it. After all April is hardly bathing suit season - in Vermont anyway.

This year I may be sporting a swimsuit on Easter. If we want to continue the sunrise service tradition, it will be Easter on the beach. The sun rises over the ocean shortly after 5:00 a.m. every day. To get the kids on their bikes in the dark at 4:30 a.m. will be just about as pleasant as getting them in the car in Vermont at 3:00 a.m. - only now they'll have to exercise too. We won't have to worry about missing the last gondola, freezing to death or waiting out the sermon. Just after sunrise the government speakers get started with the day's top "news," so that could double as the sermon I suppose. We won't be able to slide on snow, but we could go for a romp in the waves. I have a feeling we'll be alone in our Easter celebration, but we certainly won't be alone on the beach. The Vietnamese get their exercise in early, and the beach will be swarming with company.

It will be a "different" year for our Easter celebration - hopefully one where I can forgo the bruises and still manage to orchestrate a visit from Buddha Bunny. In this season of rebirth, we’ll build on the familiar (sunrise, whining, fresh air) and integrate the new (beach, sand, seafood) to create a warm, new Easter experience, the memory of which should keep us cozy for the many Easter sunrise services yet to come.

This week in photos...