No Pascha celebration for me

I guess my luck was bound to run out some time. After all these years of having two big family Easter celebrations, it looks like there will be none this year. Growing up in a mixed family, Italian Catholic and Greek Orthodox, we have always celebrate both Western Easter and Greek Easter (Pascha). While Dad isn’t a practicing Orthodox Christian, he has always seen Pascha as a way to teach us about our Greek heritage. Anyone who knows Greeks knows how important that is to them. Ever since I converted to Orthodoxy, this celebration has become more and more meaningful to me. In fact, when it looked like the Catholic side of my family would all be gone for Western Easter, and expressed some sadness that we would be alone for Easter, I told them that it didn’t matter because our Easter was still a month away. Well, tonight, I find out from my sister that Dad and his girlfriend are leaving for vacation Pascha Sunday morning. He will not be making the tradtion dinner. She did say that he was planning on bringing the lamb and orzo to the Saturday night party. Oh, yeah, did I mention that? Holy Saturday happens to be the day of my niece’s First Holy Communion. In Catholic families, this is a big deal. Yeah, my mom’s family is Italian, my sister’s in-laws are Irish. Yeah, it’s a big deal. All of the in-laws are coming from all over the East Coast. So, Mass is at 5, followed by dinner and an all night party. For those not familiar with the Orthodox Easter observance, the services start at about 11pm Saturday night, end around 1-2am, followed by a big potluck dinner. In previous years, I’ve gotten home around 5am and am usually a wreck on Sunday. I guess this year, if I want a family dinner, I’m gonna have to cook it myself. In addition to all this, my husband will be at http://www.ravencon.com/ the whole weekend. Which means that it’s pretty much pointless for me to plan a family dinner.