Sunday, March 23, 2008

An Unusual Easter Tradition

One Easter about ten years ago, we were invited to my sister-in-law's house on Bainbridge Island for Easter brunch. Since we ate at about 11 AM, we were hungry again by the time we got off the ferry in downtown Seattle, so we decided that we'd head to The Spaghetti Factory, our favorite downtown restaurant -- the one that serves the meal that all kids love, pasta with butter and cheese.

We prepared ourselves for a long wait because we had never, ever waited less than 45 minutes to be seated at The Spaghetti Factory on a weekend evening. But when we arrived at the restaurant, we were shocked to find that there was no wait at all! It seems that this just wasn't the "right" place for a traditional Easter dinner, and the entire city of Seattle didn't turn out on this one Sunday to eat pasta with Mizithra cheese, salad with pesto dressing, and a scoop of spumoni ice cream for dessert.

But that evening, a family tradition was born, and from then on we've gone to the SpagFact (as it's come to be called, thanks to a few silly IM messages!) almost every Easter -- including this one.

In other weekend news: the glorious Seattle weather yesterday prompted us to go to Molbacks (our world famous home town nursery) and Home Depot in search of color for our yard. After a wonderful breakfast at Julia's with Elisabeth (who can walk from her house in Wallingford to many of the best restaurants in all of Seattle), we spent the day picking out flowers, bringing them home, and planting many of them before nightfall, leaving about half to be planted today.

Unfortunately, though, when we woke up this morning it was pouring rain and the last thing we wanted to do was go outside and dig in the mud! But we did and oh, how I wish someone had taken a picture of Tom and me in our raincoats, hoods up and tied, pants sopping wet, digging silly holes in the ground!

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh, spaghetti with Mizithra cheese and herbed butter - heaven. Thtat's the only thing I have ever eaten at the SpagFact.

J said...

mmm..I haven't been to a Spag Fact in 20 years. I used to love it.

Jen said...

I love out-of-the-box family traditions. I think they're part of what make having a family so great!

kim-d said...

Carol, your family is SO beautiful. I love all of the happy faces gathered around the SpagFact table. I don't care where you are, as long as you're all together...it's ALL good. And, PLEASE, give me spaghetti with cheese and butter. Oh my!

And you know what? Now that I know what-all is involved in your job, I will stop being a selfish spoiled brat who was missing her Carol :). WOW, Girl--you are ALL THAT AND A BAG OF CHIPS with your job! Good for you; I am so glad that you're enjoying it and, hopefully, it will balance out real soon. In fact, it will--I know it will. No matter what the job, it's always craziest at the beginning, right?

So I'm glad you shared your Easter tradition...and I will always be around here for ya, no matter how busy you get :)!

Maria said...

Sounds like a wonderful day! :)

BethanyWD said...

I just have to tell you that I recognized that you were at the Spag as soon as I saw the photo! My husband worked for the Spag (as a general manager) all over the country for about 18.5 years (I knew him for about 8 of those years). Never at the Seattle store, though. He left to take a much better job (for a family man) in educational food service. Plus, the company isn't what it used to be, that's all I can say!! The only things he misses are the clam chowder on Fridays and the unlimited access to fountain diet Coke!

Goofball said...

hihi a fun easter tradition it sounds at the spaghetti factory. Yummie! And family dinners are great, no matter where they are.

And yes, too bad there is no picture of you and Tom in the rain planting the glorious colorful flowers, inviting the summer.
We had snow! We still get snow showers every 30 minutes. We had no snow whatsoever in 2 winters...now it has decided to snow with easter :p.

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