Adult Easter



1950s Easter Swag - Post Scowl

Easter has never been a big deal, holiday wise, for me which is surprising given how much I like chocolate.  It doesn’t have the emotional impact or associated memories of Christmas and Thanksgiving.  From childhood I remember being forced to dress up in really uncomfortable clothes, the proverbial Easter best.  This was recently confirmed when I had the old 8mm films converted to DVD and saw several 1950’s Easters where my sisters and I (scowling for all I was worth) were paraded about in our Easter finery.  My fondest memories of Easter come from the times when my own children were young enough to be excited about waking up for an Easter egg hunt.  This was only for a period of a few years but I just loved watching the two of them earnestly questing for chocolate treasures.  Those days are long gone.  We were able to video chat with our son in Kyrgyzstan and talk with our daughter in New York City but the house seemed especially empty Easter morning.  My sister’s mother in law, possibly the nicest person ever born, invited us for Easter dinner at her house in Rhode Island.  I love spending time with my sister’s in laws – they are such fun to be around, just great people.  My sister’s husband is the brother that I never had and we were able to spend a good time talking at the table as the food came in waves.  I was once again struck by how much older everyone was, not old, just older.  Over the years we had been to several of these gatherings and there were always hordes of kids weaving through the crowd and adding significantly to the background noise.  The kids are still there but most are in college or nearly so and much too cool to be cacophonous anymore.  The funniest part of the day was my apparent dependency on chocolate Easter bunnies.  As I said above, I absolutely adore chocolate.  This dates back to my childhood where my mother always gave me a large chocolate bunny and I would jealously guard it from my three ravenous sisters.  When my mother was alive she never failed to get a chocolate bunny to me, no matter where I was in the world.  My wife and sister picked up the tradition but yesterday my wife gave a horrified look when she realized she had forgotten.  She seemed genuinely worried about my emotional well being.  We were talking about this at the dinner table and my sister achieved the same shocked look.  She said she had bought me a chocolate bunny but had forgotten it at home; as is her want to do with things of this nature.  So apparently I have this chocolate bunny reputation – something I’ll have to live with.  My sister’s mother in law solved the crisis by presenting a huge Easter basket to everyone attending, another of her traditions.  In the basket she prepared for my wife and I was the elusive chocolate bunny which I quickly established ownership of.  The bunny was not, size wise, up to my normal standard so I’ll have to figure out a way to score the bunny that my sister bought before my nephew (and godson) absconds with it, life is all about meeting challenges.

The Wife in Her Easter Finery - Looking Very Good

My Sister Shortly After Realizing I was Without Bunny

My Wife and I with the Aforementioned Nicest Person in the World

The Wife and I with Our Easter Basket

The Easter Basket with the Somewhat Undersized Salvation Bunny

Buddy With His Easter Present - a
 Bone With Meat on it (At Least Temporarily)