Family-Wide Fire Alarm Day

They call it "Easter" but for us it was "Family-Wide Fire Alarm Day." Let me just say that finding yourself in the middle of "Family-Wide Fire Alarm Day" when you were expecting "Easter" is kind of disconcerting.

It went something like this.

Jon decided that we should host his mom for Easter lunch, which was great because I love his mom, but he decided kind of late. No big deal. After much discussion, we ended up deciding to go with a roast, oven potatoes, and various sides. Ok, I can do this. I wanted to go for easy, so I bought a Costco tri-tip roast (it comes in a bag, it's pre-seasoned, it is so easy) from my sister. She has a Costco membership and I don't and she always stocks important food items like Costco tri-tip roasts. Cool, we were good to go.

Except that we were going to church on Easter (not just because it was Easter, we're church-going folks) and I couldn't figure out when to cook the thing. I didn't want to throw it in the slow-cooker and I hadn't planned to throw it in the slow-cooker so it became a time crunch issue because we would be going to my parents for Easter dinner. Best idea seemed to be to cook the thing before church and then throw it in the slow-cooker just to keep it warm while we were in church.

Which seemed like a genius idea until, at 8AM on Easter morning, the fire alarm was screaming its head off at my house. Not just any fire alarm, the one that's at the tippy-top of my cathedral ceiling. And Jon was in the shower. Arrrgh! Opened all the doors and windows. Jon got out of the shower, threw on some clothes, and went up the ladder to quiet the alarm. Yeah, I bet the neighbors weren't expecting that on Easter, make that Family-Wide Fire Alarm Day. Bet they weren't expecting it to go off a second time either. Into the slow-cooker went the roast and I did my best to convince myself that Easter was not the best day to develop a serious swearing habit.

Off to church. Lunch with Mom Pilgrim. Off to my parents' house. Where my mom was cooking, wait for it, a Costco tri-tip roast! With oven potatoes! Huh? Seriously? We all thought that was weird enough until, yes, the fire alarm went off at my parents' house. Multiple times. Jon was upstairs entertaining Luke who was complaining that the sound hurt his ears (well, yeah) but finally we had to bring him downstairs because he was the only one who could quiet the alarm. And keep it quiet.

Maybe it wasn't Easter or Family-Wide Fire Alarm Day. Maybe it was "Groundhog Day." At least the Easter egg hunt went as planned.