I also spent the weekend explaining the Easter Bunny. My five-year-old nephew Grant kept asking how the bunny gets in the house, and what he should do if he saw the Easter Bunny at night ("Say hello!" I answered). He also fretted about whether we should leave the Easter bunny carrots or lettuce, and finally settled on both.
Mark and my niece Gabi didn't care about the details; they just wanted reassurance that the Bunny was bringing them candy. They could care care less how or when he came into the house.
My niece Nathalie is in middle school, and wasn't much interested either. But when I remarked how funny the whole Easter Bunny story is, she looked at me questioningly.
"Think about it," I said. "Most kids would freak out if a giant animal entered their home. But tell them it's bringing candy, and they're like, 'Hey, COOL!'"
She nodded, and I asked if kids would feel the same if the animal wasn't cute and funny. "What if it was a donkey instead of a bunny?" I asked her. "Would everyone still be as excited?"
"A donkey!" she cried. But apparently she was still thinking about it half an hour later, because she said, "A donkey," again and started giggling.
After dinner, the kids colored Easter eggs. They got really into it.
The older kids dyed their eggs dark, rich colors, but Grant powered through, dyeing three eggs in about three minutes. But then he spent the next hour worrying about the dye all over the back of his hands.
"Am I gonna look like this forever?" he asked. "Is this ever gonna come off?"
I assured him it would, and after a few good scrubbings, it was almost gone.
The kids were thrilled to find their baskets on Easter Sunday morning, and immediately dug into the sugar. We enjoyed a nice brunch, and then headed to church. The kids looked so great in their Sunday best:
Scott and Mary looked nice, too. Here's a picture that pretty much sums up their relationship. ;-)
My dad wasn't feeling well, but he felt well enough to give me this nice shot.
Because we'd spent Christmas Mass in the bingo hall, we left extra early, hoping to secure seats in the actual church this time. Turns out we had no worries -- we arrived as the 9 o'clock service was letting out. We let the kids run off those jelly beans outside, and went into the church. I was shocked at how few people there were; they took their time getting to services. It felt like we'd been sitting there a long time, and when I asked Mark what time it was, his answer shocked me.
"10:58," he said.
"You mean 10:28," I corrected. He said, no, it was almost 11. And I realized that for the first time in 40 years, Sunday Mass was starting at 11, not 10:30. We weren't just a little early -- we were an HOUR early! I guess that was God's way of getting us to spend a little more time in church this year.
We topped off the Easter celebrations with a traditional egg hunt. We hadn't really planned to have an egg hunt this year, until the kids informed us they were expecting one. So Mary and I filled plastic eggs with coins and jelly beans (separately -- not in the same eggs!) and Mary hid them around the yard.
The kids took off like a shot to find them.
It was a wonderful, mellow Easter, and though the candy was good, the best part was just being together, and celebrating with our family.
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