When Holidays Are Alone

My family never had big holiday traditions.  We opened presents on Christmas Eve (because in Sweden that's when Santa came).  We ate turkey on Thanksgiving.  We colored eggs for Easter.  That's about it.

I have no family here to celebrate holidays with.  No one.  So last year for Thanksgiving I asked that the girls go with their dad to be with his family.  His family does the big family dinner, all of the girls's cousins were there so they got to see a lot of family they wouldn't normally see.

Instead of staying home alone I visited my cousin in Chicago and we had a great 3 days together.

Easter I didn't plan out as well.  Actually Easter kind of creeped up on me earlier this week when Annabel told me her school was having an Easter party and that she was so excited.  Ummm..oops.  I went out and bought the girls a few candies that they like and a little pet rock to paint, which they did today and they loved it.

We missed a lot of the big local Easter egg hunts last weekend but I found one for this morning out on the beach.

1,000s of eggs, 100s of kids and all of the eggs were gone in about 5 seconds!

I was so proud of Annika after the egg hunt.  Poor Annabel only was able to grab 5 eggs, Annika had around 12.  Annabel's eyes were filled with tears when it was over because she saw all the other kids with a lot more eggs than her and I felt awful for her.  Annika came over and hugged her and put some of her eggs into Annabel's basket so she would have the same amount as her.  I love how thoughtful she is!

After the egg hunt we spent the day together shopping and just looking at cats (turns out Annabel has an allergic reaction to them so I'm glad we just looked).

Then I took them to see their dad, he has them overnight and all day tomorrow.  They're going to the beach, which I would love to do but it's his day with them.  So this will be my first Easter alone.  I was invited to church tomorrow with the guy I went on the date with Thursday but I'm not sure if I want to go.  I might even go to the beach alone, but knowing me I'll sit here all day in my pajamas drinking tea and watching American Horror Story on Netflix.

I just hope that the girls have a good time with their dad tomorrow and I can't wait to see them in the evening.