Easter Longings...

I'm a little disappointed about Easter this year. No cute little Easter dress, or gentleman-ly hats for Juju, no egg hunts, no grandparents around to fill baskets with thoughtfully healthy surprises. (not the typical peeps and jelly beans and Milk Duds--rabbit turds, as my uncle used to call them. "Look what the Easter Bunny left for you, Rabbit Turds!!!")

Easter this year will consist of us watching "Winnie the Pooh and Springtime Roo" and eating our chocolate bunnies. We will, of course, make our Sunday evening trek to the Jardin, and that promises to be action packed, but otherwise, a little empty.

As a child, I have such fond memories of Easter. Some years, we would go to the egg hunt at the Hatfield Lion's Park and I would try so hard to find that money egg. Most of my Easters took place at my Mimi's house (as most things did). The adults would send us to the backroom while they hid the eggs. Usually, plastic, filled with mini chocolate eggs, and "Bunny Money", the chocolate coins with different easter animals on them. As we got older, we had to take 2 trips, the older kids (myself, my brother, and the Shreve children) and the young'uns (my sister, the Pinedas, and the Rose's, my cousin Misty, if she could weasel herself into the young group and get all the easily hidden eggs...oh that girl was slick...

After many peeks through the blinds to see where they were hiding them this year, we would line up at Mimi's patio door and wait for the okay...and then we were OFF!! We ran like crazy, trying not to knock down the babies as we dove under PaBob's broken down riding lawn mower, into Max's dog house, along the creek that ran through Mimi's backyard. Usually, some wiseguy would hide an egg in a very obvious place, like a high tree branch, which none of us could reach of course.

"I got that one, I saw it first!!"
"No you didn't, I saw it from the back door!"
"You were cheating! You're not supposed to look when they're hiding 'em!"
"I wasn't cheating, I saw it when the door opened"

and on and on and on...why do the grown ups do this? Don't they understand the torture of having something so close, yet not being able to reach it? Eventually, one of the monkey Shreve kids (Ben or Randy) would shimmy up the tree and get the egg, crack it open to find the typical chocolate coin and drop it non-chalantly into one of the little guys baskets.

The fun didn't stop there. Now it was OUR turn to hide the eggs, and send the grown ups to the back room. They usually only agreed if we shared our candy. We got creative.

"Let's hide this one UNDER Max's dog house. OOOOHHH, or we can bury it!! YEah, let's bury it!. HEy, do you think we can hide these INSIDE? THey'll never look there!!"

It was such fun. We tried to make the hunt last all day, but eventually, the adults would tire out, and we would be sent to play outside or into Mimi's back room to eat chocolate goodies for hours. Magical times...

I guess the worst part, is that even if we weren't in Mexico and were at home, things would still be so so different. The people who made those days so fun for us, have all moved on. My family is scattered all over the continent, with families of their own...new traditions being created, eggs being hunted for in new yards. I was so blessed to have had such a wonderful, fun filled childhood. As a mother--one of the aforementioned "grown ups"-- I must strive to recreate some of those memories in a new form, with new characters and new traditions. So perhaps, this Sunday will consist of more than a movie and a chocolate bunny...who knows? Maybe the magic I experienced as a kid is still around, and if it is...it may just show up in Mexico...

posted by mindi11 @ 3/25/2005 11:46:00 PM