Easter 2022

In early March Angela asked Jane and Maura if they were bringing the children to Easter Mass this year. She knew Maura wasn't religious but she didn't stop Jane from going to church. Maura supported Jane and attended with her when she wanted to go. Jane and Maura have missed the last few years with the children being so young. Now with Kate, the youngest, being three and a half years old, Angela thought she would check in with them to see if they would be attending this year.

Jane informed her mother that they would be attending this year. Jane and Maura also decided Kate was old enough to help pick out her own dress for Easter this year. Maura decided she would take Lilly and Kate dress shopping for their Easter dresses. Jane thought it was only fair that she took the boys to get new suits for Easter. So, one weekend in late March the whole family went shopping. After hours of looking at dresses on Newberry Street, Lilly, Kate and Maura all had new dress and Jane, MJ and AJ all had new suits.

Jane and the boys finished shopping in just about an hour. It took them that long because they were discussing what color shirts to get with their suits. They decided on a light blue shirt. The suits they had picked out were a medium shade of brown, slightly darker than their skin color. The boys wanted to get ties that had an Easter bunny on them. Jane wasn't too sure about that. Dressing for Easter was a formal event, however, they found ties with just a little Easter bunny on them that blended in well with their color scheme and they purchased the ties.

The boys had nice shoes so they skipped shoe shopping and went to the barber to get their hair cut. The boys looked sharp with their fresh haircuts. Jane was pleased. Knowing the ladies would be a while, Jane took the boys to the batting cage for some batting practice.

Lilly had picked out a nice knee-length yellow dress with pink and purple flowers on it. The dress had sleeves that went half way down her upper arms and a belt that wrapped around her waist. She found a nice pair of yellow shoes and a matching hat to finish off her ensemble. Kate didn't like the color pink. She wanted a blue dress. It took a little while but they found a nice knee-length light blue dress with white flowers on it and a splash of yellow and a little green for the stems. Kate's dress was sleeveless and she selected light blue shoes and a light blue hat to go with her dress. Maura found a cute pair of sunglasses that would look nice with the dress.

When they got home from shopping and the children were playing Jane and Maura had ordered new Easter baskets from Amazon for the children to use for their Easter Egg Hunt. Jane asked if she could select the baskets for the boys. She didn't want them to end up with flowers all over their baskets. "Maur, you know if you select all the baskets the boys will end up with flowers on their baskets."

"Jane, I wouldn't deliberately select flowers for the boys but the baskets must be identifiable as Easter baskets."

"I know babe, but I would like to select some of the baskets and I thought if I selected the boys and you selected the girls, we could do this together."

"That is sweet Jane, of course we can do that."

It took them less than an hour to pick out the baskets and they were pleased with their selections. The baskets for the boys were blue and only had one ribbon on them, no flowers. The baskets for the girls were two toned pink and yellow with several pretty ribbons on them. They hoped the children would like their baskets. These were the baskets that they would use for their Easter egg hunt.

Their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny that Jane and Maura would give them on Easter all looked alike and all had the same amount of candy and stuffed animals in them. Each basket had a fluffy twelve-inch bunny and a twelve-inch lamb. There was a Cadbury Egg and some Peeps in each basket, as well as other assorted candies and an Easter story book. There were a few coloring books as well as an eight pack of Crayola crayons. In the center of the basket was a small waffle maker in the shape of a bunny.

The baskets were wrapped in cellophane and a hole had been made by each of the stuffed animals because they didn't want the children to be upset about their stuffed animals not being able to breathe. They knew it was silly but children were silly, so they just went along with it. They had learned about that with TJ when he was young. It helped having a nephew around so they learn from Tommy's mistakes.

Ten Years Ago

Easter morning, TJ was crying after Tommy gave him his Easter basket. Tommy didn't know what he had done wrong. TJ hadn't even opened his basket yet and he broke out in tears. Angela tried comforting him but he didn't want anything to do with her. He just kept crying. He pointed to the basket and wiped the tears from his eyes. TJ screamed, "You killed the Easter bunny, Daddy." Tommy couldn't figure it out. He didn't understand why his son was so upset. "He can't breathe Daddy."

Maura walked over to the basket and quickly poke a hole in the back of the cellophane behind the stuffed Easter bunny. She turned the basket around to show TJ the hole. TJ stopped crying immediately and gave Maura a hug. Angela, Tommy and Jane just stood there in shock with a surprised look on their faces. They hadn't thought about that. Jane gave Maura a huge smile and whispered 'Thank You' to her wife for thinking about poking a hole in the back of the cellophane. They had no idea where TJ had come up with that but they were thankful that the crisis was over. TJ then went on to open his basket up and gave the bunny a huge hug. He was happy his Easter bunny was not dead after all. The adults would have to remember that for any other children they might give Easter baskets to that contained stuffed animals.

The Easter baskets were stored with Constance as they didn't want the children to see them. Jane had loaded the baskets into the SUV while the children were decorating their Easter eggs. She wanted to be able to have them on the dining room table for them Easter morning.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

The children all woke up about their normal time. They were excited. They gathered in MJ's room and decided what they wanted to do. They came to the conclusion that they wanted to go into their parent's bedroom first. They knew that the Easter bunny had probably dropped off baskets for them downstairs but they wanted their mommies to go downstairs with them.

It was just after 7 AM when they walked into their parent's bedroom. The bedroom door was ajar, so they didn't feel like they needed to knock, so they didn't. Jane and Maura had expected to be woken up by the children so they had set their alarm to 9 AM just to make sure they had time to get ready for church in case for some reason the children didn't wake them up.

Jane thought she would pull a prank on the children and pretend to sleep no matter what they did. When she first heard them, she snuggled tighter into Maura and whispered to her that the children were up. Maura knew Jane's plan. Secretly she knew it wouldn't work but she would let Jane find that out for herself.

They came in one at a time quietly. Kate went first and climbed in the bed on Maura's side and snuggled up with Maura. This was her routine. She would snuggle up with Maura and Jane would wrap her arm around both Maura and Kate. Kate felt secure knowing that both of her mommies were holding her. AJ and Lilly went in next, they climbed up onto the bed from the end of the bed and laid on top of their mommies. Lilly on top of Maura and AJ on top of Jane. MJ was the last one to enter and he slid in the bed next to Jane and snuggled up to her. He whispered in her ear, "Good morning, mama."

Jane stayed still and didn't say a word. MJ raised up a little and leaned over and gave Maura a kiss on the cheek and said, "Good morning, mommy."

"Good morning, MJ. Happy Easter."

"Happy Easter, mommy. Do you think the Easter bunny came and left us baskets like last year?" MJ asked, excitement evident in his voice.

"I think we will have to wait and see. What time is it? MJ looked at the clock and said, "7:19. We are all awake and ready to go downstairs. We have church this morning."

"Yes, we do. Is mama awake?"

"I think she is, but I think she is pretending to be asleep."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I climbed on top of her and she didn't move a muscle. If she were asleep, she would have moved a little and then settled back in, she didn't move a muscle."

"That is very observant of you."

"Well, my mama is a detective and she is observant, so I am also."

"Interesting, so do you think we should get up and go have breakfast and see if the Easter bunny came?"

"Not without mama." MJ stated.

"Ya, not without mama." AJ added and Lilly and Kate both sat up and nodded their heads.

"Well, I guess we better wake mama up then. How should we wake her up?" Maura asked, curious as to what the children would say.

Lilly replied, "Can we tickle her? She is always trying to tickle us."

"No, let's pour cold water on her face." AJ said.

"No, no, no wadder on mama's face, mean." Kate yelled as she stood up on the bed and climbed over to where AJ was, so that she was in between AJ and Jane. "Be nice to mama. She lubs you. She protect you." Jane was trying so hard not to laugh at the children's conversation. Kate leaned down and gave Jane a kiss on the cheek. "Nice mama." She added as she stroked Jane's hair.

Maura turned so she was now facing Jane and kissed Jane on the forehead. "Love, it is time to get up." Jane didn't respond.

Kate gave Jane another kiss and said, "Lub, time to get up." Jane was laughing so hard inside. Kate was just too damn cute. She stirred a little to act as if she was waking up.

"Oh, it's working, I think she needs more kisses to help her wake up." Maura stated.

All the children started kissing Jane. Jane started squirming. She didn't open her eyes but called out, "Maura, help I am being kissed by little humans." The children continued kissing her.

"Jane, love there is only one way to stop them and that is to wake up so we can go have breakfast. I think bacon is on the menu this morning." Maura stated loud enough so Jane could hear her over the children's movements.

"Bacon!" Jane said as she opened her eyes. "Did someone say Bacon?" Jane sat up and scoop up a kid and made her way downstairs to the kitchen. "Bacon, I need bacon." AJ squirmed in her arms. When she got to the kitchen, she put him down and then said, "Water on my face, really AJ, you would pour water on my face to wake me?"

"I was just joking mama, I wouldn't do that." AJ pleaded with his mama, as she grabbed a bucket to fill with water. "Mama, please don't pour that on me." AJ was still pleading with Jane when Maura and the children arrived downstairs.

"Jane." Maura said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"What, I am just doing what he wanted to do to me." Jane said as she laughed. AJ was fearful, he really thought Jane was going to pour water on him. Maura just shook her head, she wasn't positive that Jane wouldn't pour some water on him.

"Look baskets." Kate said as everyone's attention turned to Kate who had wondered over to the dining room table where the Easter baskets were waiting for the children. All the children hurried over to the dining room table. They each picked out a basket. Maura cautioned them not to pick up the baskets as they were heavy. Maura put the baskets down on the floor so the children could open them up.

The children were excited. Kate pulled out the waffle maker and asked, "Mommy, bunny mawsheen, what it do?"

"Kate darling, that is a bunny waffle maker. We can set it up in the kitchen and pour waffle batter into it and it will make bunny waffles for us. Does that sound like something you might want to do?"

"Bunny wabbles, ya." Kate said as she tried to carry the waffle maker over to the kitchen. Maura followed close behind trying to let Kate carry the little machine. She liked to do things herself if she could. If she needed help, she would ask.

Jane was still in the kitchen. She was making the waffle batter. She saw Kate clumsily carry the waffle maker over and when she got close enough, she asked, "What do you have there, little one?"

"Bunny wabble mawsheen, you make some?" Kate asked.

"Sure." Jane said as she took the little machine from Kate and took it out of the box it was in. The other children followed behind and did the same thing. Maura helped them line up their waffle makers on the counter. She undid the wrapping from each one. They were different colors so that would help keep everyone's machine straight. They learned early on in parenting to mark each child's items because they didn't initially like to share their new items.

Jane had just finished making the waffle batter so she was ready. Once all the packaging was disposed of, she sprayed each of the waffle makers and plugged them in. When the light turned on, she poured batter into each of them and she had the children help her close the lid. The light changed color indicating it was cooking. She told the children, "You need to watch for it to change back to the color green and that will let us know that the waffle is done. Does everyone understand?"

The children all nodded their heads and said, "Yes ma'am." Jane smiled at them. They were so well behaved. Maura was getting their plates ready. She also started squeezing some fresh orange juice as she knew it would take a minute or two for the waffles to cook.

When the light changed to green on the waffle makers the children all got excited. Kate was the first one to say, "Mama, color changed. Done mama." Jane went over and retrieved Kate's bunny waffle and put it on her plate. Then she plated all the other bunny waffles and took them to the table for the children. The children put butter and syrup on their waffles and ate them. Jane asked them when they finished their waffles, "Well, what did you think of the bunny waffles?"

"No blueberry mama." Kate said.

"Oh, sorry baby. I will make sure to add blueberries next time, okay?"

"Yes, mama, tank you." Kate said as she got down out of her seat and walked over and gave Jane a hug. "Tank you, mama for my bunny wabbles." Then she went over to Maura and hugged her and told her the same thing, "Tank you, mommy for my bunny wabbles."

"You are welcome sweetheart." Maura said. "I will remind mama about the blueberries."

Maura unplugged all the waffle makers and helped clean up the dining room table. The children had all carried their plates to the sink and MJ asked, "Can we go watch cartoons for a little while, as we look through our Easter baskers?"

Jane replied, "Yes, but we will need to go upstairs soon to get ready to go to Church."

"Okay, mama." MJ said as he led all the children to the living room so they could watch cartoons.

Half an hour later they were all headed upstairs to get dressed into their new Easter outfits. Jane and Maura knew that the grandparents would want to take pictures today so they made sure the children looked really nice in their new outfits.

They arrived at church at 11:10. Jane had allotted extra time for parking. She dropped Maura and the children off at the front of the church and then went to park the SUV. Kate wanted to stay with her so Kate rode with her down the street to park the SUV. Jane took Kate's hand as they walked back to the front of the church to meet the rest of their family. They walked inside the church as a family. Jane expected to get some looks from some of the congregation that were homophobic, she was used to it and just didn't pay them any attention. She loved Maura and Maura loved her and they were happy together and had been for quite a while now.

The rest of the family was in the church already so they went up and met up with Angela who showed them the seats she had reserved for them. Because Frankie and Tommy had arrived around 11 AM they were able to secure a section of seats together. "Ma, these are great seats, what time did you get here?" Jane asked her mother.

"I might have been here a few minutes before 11." Angela responded as she tilted her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders. Jane just smiled at her mother. Angela loved when Jane and Maura brought the children to church.

The music from the church organ began to play and everyone took their seats. The service was about to begin. Jane noticed that Angela still had a few seats saved and was wondering who she was still saving seats for as her brothers and their families were already there as were Constance and Arthur. As soon as Jane turned around to face the front of the church, Arianna, Mario, Nicky and Giana walked in and had a seat in the row in front of her.

Jane was so surprised she immediately leaned in and hugged Arianna. She was half sitting half standing and drawing tons of attention. She didn't care, one of her favorite people in the whole world had just shown up. Jane knelt down behind Arianna and continued their hug and cry. She was crying she was so excited. She had missed her cousin and what a great surprise this was. Everyone scooted over so Jane could sit behind Arianna and not disrupt the service.

The children all were well behaved during the service. Their parents had told all of them that there would be an Easter egg hunt at the Isles' home afterwards if they were good. So, the children were on their best behavior.

When the service was over. Jane went immediately to the aisle so she could properly hug her cousin and her family. She had no idea they would be there. Constance leaned over and said, "Surprise darling! Arianna needed to come over and conduct some foundation business so I brought the whole family over. I thought you might enjoy spending some time with them this next week while you are on vacation."

"Thank you so much Constance. Have I told you lately what a great mother-in-law you are?"

"Maybe once or twice recently but I can never tire of hearing it. I can never pay you back for what you have given me." They both glanced over at Maura and the children. They walked out to the cars with the whole family. Everyone piled into their cars and made their way over to the Isles' home. Arianna and Mario were staying there and their luggage had already been delivered and placed in their room. Nicky and Giana were staying in Jane and Maura's guest house so they could spend quality time with Jane, Maura and the children.

All eight of the grandchildren changed into play clothes and got ready for the Easter egg hunt. While the children were getting ready. Nicky, Giana, Frankie and Tommy hid the Easter eggs around the yard, being careful not to place any out of Kate's reach.

Tommy had wanted to place some up in the trees to make the children climb the tree but Constance came out and caught him. "Thomas Edward Rizzoli," Tommy turned to see one upset Constance Isles, "You need to follow the rules, young man or you will be banned from such activities in the future."

Tommy walked over and gave Constance a huge hug. "I'm sorry, I just can't help it sometimes." She hugged him back and he continued, "You say my full name just as loud as my Ma."

Angela had come outside when she heard Constance scream Tommy's name, to see what trouble Tommy had gotten himself into now. She was just laughing at the two of them, carrying on like they were mother and son. Angela just continued laughing, Tommy deserved it sometimes.

The grandchildren all came downstairs ready to hunt for some eggs. Arthur laid out the ground rules. The would be released to search for eggs in reverse age order, the youngest first, with a minute in between each release of a child. After Lilly started the time dropped down to forty-five seconds. After Trey was released, the time dropped down to thirty seconds. Each child was allowed to have an adult help them. The adult couldn't touch the eggs. They had hoped that this would allow the youngest children to find some eggs before the older children found them all.

Kate was excited that she got to go first. She had asked her mommy to help her. When she went to grab her mommy's hand, she also grabbed Giana's hand as Giana was standing with Maura. She found three eggs before Alessandra started looking for eggs with her mommy, Chloe. Alessandra found an egg before Lilly joined the hunt with Constance assisting her.

Lilly was excited that she quickly found three eggs. Constance was just as excited as Lilly. Constance had never participated in an Easter egg hunt before and she was loving it. It took AJ a minute or two before he found his first egg but once he did, he found four in a row. Arthur was having just as much fun helping AJ as Constance was with Lilly.

Trey found an egg as soon as he and his father, Frankie, started searching. It excited him and he ran to the other side of the yard away from the others and found two eggs. MJ and Jane quickly went over near Trey and discovered some eggs.

Kimberleigh had spotted an egg and was hoping nobody else saw it before she and her mother, Nina, could get to it. She was in luck when it was her turn to search, she was able to get to the egg before anybody else. TJ was the last child to be released and he had asked Nicky to look for eggs with him. Tommy had walked over before TJ had started searching and told him that he should ask Nicky to search with him. Tommy knew that TJ looked up to Nicky and he didn't get to see him that often. Tommy knew it would mean a great deal to TJ. TJ said, "Thank you dad. I have missed Nicky."

After half an hour, Tommy looked in all the children's baskets and he was pretty sure most of the eggs had been found. Now it was time for the grand prize. Tommy brought out a large egg that was about three feet tall and had all the children join him in the center of the yard. He asked, "Now look in your basket and open up all of your eggs. The person with the golden ticket in one of their eggs wins the contents of this large egg."

All the children were excited, they quickly opened up their eggs. Candy and coins were quickly tossed aside in the basket. The goal was to open up all the eggs and find the golden ticket. Tommy was excited he had no idea who had the golden ticket. He had forgotten where he had placed it in the yard.

After several minutes Kate said, "Look, golden ticket." She was so excited. Tommy asked her to bring up the golden ticket and she could trade it for the large egg. She looked confused, "I want golden ticket."

"It's okay Kate, you can keep the golden ticket and have the large egg also."

"Okay," Kate said with a smile, she handed Tommy the golden ticket and he handed her the large egg. Tommy help her place the egg down in front of her and then reached her hand over to Tommy. Tommy gave her back the golden ticket and then she opened the large egg.

All the adults were looking at each other. They had no idea what was in the large egg. They didn't even know that Tommy was doing this so more than one of them were a little concern about what was in the large egg.

Kate asked Maura to help her open the egg. They cracked it open to find a great big stuffed bunny rabbit with a gift certificate attached to each hand. Maura carefully removed the gift certificates and told Kate, "It is a twenty-five-dollar gift certificate to the book store."

Kate smiled, she loved books. "Open other certicate, peas."

Maura opened the other certificate and told Kate, "It is a It is a twenty-five-dollar gift certificate to the toy store."

Kate asked, "Can we go now mommy?"

"No sweetie, maybe tomorrow we can go to the toy store or book store, okay?"

"Okay," Kate said as she sat in the big bunny's lap. The big bunny was almost as big as she was.

It was time for them to eat so everybody gathered around the tables. The hard-boiled eggs were set out as nametags to mark where everybody was to sit. Constance and Arthur had made additional eggs for Arianna, Mario, Nicky and Giana. They didn't want them to be left out.

Kate wanted to sit with her mommies so adjustments were made. Tommy gave up his seat and went and sat with the children at their table. He knew there was no separating Kate from her mommies when she hadn't had a nap so he volunteered his seat to help his older sister out. He remembered the no nap periods in a child's life, actually he still had some as Alessandra wasn't that much older than Kate.

The dinner was fantastic and there was a pause between dinner and dessert as the catering staff was not responsible for the dessert. The catering staff had done a spectacular job on the meal again and Constance was so pleased that Chloe knew about this catering service. She would have to use them again when Chloe's services were not available of course.

Angela had told Constance to hold off on dessert because she was taking care of that. She told Constance, "There is a Rizzoli tradition that I need to make sure continues. I will make cannolis from my family recipe." What she didn't tell her was that she was also preparing a new recipe for a French dessert that Constance loved, Pears Belle Helene. She wanted to start a Rizzoli and Isles Easter tradition and figured the serving of both the desserts would be perfect.

After the dinner dishes and remaining food was cleared away and the catering staff had departed, Angela had Tommy and Chloe help her with the desserts. They had everyone come back to the table and Angela said, "I would like to start a new Rizzoli-Isles family tradition for family dinners. All of you know I always make cannolis, however tonight I am pleased to add an additional item to our dessert. Constance has a favorite dessert as well so tonight we will share a favorite French dessert of hers, Pears Belle Helene. I hope you enjoy your desserts."

Constance had tears running down her cheek she was so touched. She got up and went over to give Angela a hug. "This is so nice of you Angela, thank you."

"Please, don't thank me until after you have tasted it." Everybody laughed.

"I am sure it is fine, darling. I know you have been practicing your French cooking. I just didn't know you were practicing desserts also."

"I just started recently. I felt it was time we incorporate some of your heritage into our family. After all we are related now and have been for a while now."

"Yes, that is true, well I guess we should sit down and try it out then." Constance said as she took a seat and Chloe served her some of each dessert. Constance tasted the French dessert first. "Angela, this is wonderful. It tastes just like the restaurant's make it."

Angela ran her hand across her forehead and breathe a sigh of relief. "I am so glad. Now I can relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor."

The family conversed over their desserts before heading their separate ways. It had been a nice Easter and family day. There were no major hiccups and for not having a nap Kate and Alessandra did very well. Jane and Maura knew Kate would sleep well tonight.