What a wonderful story, rosa! I'm not Italian, but you seem like Very Good Italians to me. You made your mother very happy. It sounds wonderful.

I know that you are atheist, but I think that many people grew up with Easter as a spring tradition. We raised our kids as Christian and took them to church and did Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets and the whole deal. This year we went to my Son #2's house and had a wonderful dinner, but none of us did anything religious, except DH led us all in a prayer that was very much like the prayer Ben Stiller did in Meet the Parents.

But my Son #1--the one in NJ--called us that night and was very nostalgic about Easter. He is not raising his kids to be religious, and they did not make a big deal out of egg hunts or ham dinners yesterday.. and he was very rueful in terms of how he was reconciling all that with his memories of growing up when Easter was a big deal.

So from the tradition aspect--forget the religious aspect--giving that to your mother was so very wonderful.