Easter Baskets

[Chrisada]

When I was a kid, I would wake up and find a plastic egg someplace in my room - usually in the middle of the floor. It contained a small clue about where to find the next egg containing a clue.

With Caleb, I have taken digital pictures and used those for the clues. It is so much fun to watch him look at the pictures and try to figure out where it is. This year, I will make the pictures be of a detail. For example, instead of showing the whole cupboard where the egg is hidden, maybe just the handle.

The baskets are ususally pretty full of candy, but I am going to get him a rubics cube this year.

That sounds so fun! I think I'll do that with R this year. My mom always mails a big easter basket with candy and toys. BTW we still got Easter baskets from my mom as an adult until we moved away! Both DH and I. She is totally crazy when it comes to holidays.

I love Easter! We always colored hard boiled eggs the night before. Sunday morning, we'd wake up and search for the hidden eggs. My parents hid one of them so well that 15 years later, when they moved out of the house, we found one! hahaha

Our easter basket had a little candy but not overboard. It usually had a small toy, our easter sunday outfit, and a new bathing suit for the summer. I was always SO excited to see my new bathing suit.

After eggs were found, we'd go to church. After church, we'd make egg salad sandwhiches out of the colored eggs. This was one of my fav things because the egg whites get colored all different colors. So, your salad is fun!

[Finding Equanimity]

OK, sort of related (hope I'm not changing the topic too much)--I have a serious sweet tooth. Serious. How in the world can I be good for my daughter on Easter (and Halloween and well every other day of the year for that matter) if I want the candy too? HELP!

[ladymoreta]

OK, sort of related (hope I'm not changing the topic too much)--I have a serious sweet tooth. Serious. How in the world can I be good for my daughter on Easter (and Halloween and well every other day of the year for that matter) if I want the candy too? HELP!

Well, I think that by eating all her candy for her, you'd be helping her prevent cavities and tummy aches. It's for her own good, really.

We got some candy in our baskets, but we also had other things. It was pretty similar to our stockings at Christmas - some candy, fruit, toys, books, etc. We would dye hard-boiled eggs, and the Easter Bunny would bring platic eggs that had toys or change in them. One of the boiled eggs would be the "prize egg", and it would usually be in the hardest spot to find. Whoever found it got $1 (might want to adjust for inflation).

[oceanchild]

The key in my house was that the basket itself was hidden. As we got older those baskets got HARD to find.

I have only missed Easter Vigil mass once, and that was the year my grandmother died the day before. I always loved wearing a flowery spring dress to mass.

[alison]

FYI, they're running out of patterns for PB Kids' baskets and liners.
I just bought one for dd.

[Auspicious]

It's 80 degrees here and I left the hard-boiled eggs on the back porch for ~4 hours. Would you still eat them?

[GrayMatterWife]

Easter is a religious celebration for us. I like to keep the focus on that, so we don't do the Easter Bunny tradition. I just can't find a way to connect, in an intellectually honest way, what on earth a gift-bearing rabbit has to do with the risen Lord. I know, I know--the idea of rebirth and spring, and how bunnies represent that...but I just can't sell it. I mean, I'm not an Easter Scrooge or anything, it's just...I would never be able to credibly pitch the idea that I would allow a ferrel rodent to roam my house and deposit food and treats (I really don't like rodents). But then, I think I am just a bad liar, even when it is just for fun and most people think, "Lighten up!" I can't even look DS in the face and lie about Santa--and that's a way more believable tradition. Instead, we have always celebrated St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 6, and read about the real St. Nicholas and then talked about how that historical figure is now popularized as Santa...and that Santa represents the spirit in which we give to others. There really isn't a way to do this with the Easter Bunny, so I haven't tried.

I do make baskets for the kids! Stuff them with chocolate, jelly beans, books, small toys, trinkets, etc.

Also, we start our Easter with the kids' Maundy Thursday mass, where I wash DS's feet as the priest talks about how we are to be servants to each other. DS always looks forward to the "washing day." And then DS and I go to the 7:00 AM Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, which is a cool thing we do together, just him and me since DH can't ever be there because of the time. (Maybe DD will go with us in a couple of years.) Then we go out for brunch before we go back later for the kids' noontime Good Friday service (WAY shorter than the adult service...and always incorporates the use of the felt board!). And, he gets to miss school, so I guess that's a plus for him!

And Julie: I wouldn't eat the eggs! But then, I used to work at a fast food restaurant that used real eggs in its breakfast food. We'd leave the raw eggs out on the counter ALL MORNING as we worked the 4:00 AM - 11:00 AM shift. And the kitchen was kept at about 80-degrees (it wasn't supposed to be). We got busted by the state constantly for violations. I have never eaten a fast food breakfast with eggs since then.