Basket Envy and other Easter antedotes

When I was growing up, my cousins Rusty and Steven would come to visit us for Easter weekend. Oh how I loved it when Steven would come. We always played together and occasionally got into some mischief. The stories I could tell.. As far as Rusty, I was never crazy about him growing up. He was an Eddie Haskell type of boy... real nice and well-mannered when adults were around but a pure nightmare when adults turned their backs. Rusty even looked like you stereotypical pain in the a** kid, red hair, thus the name Rusty, and freckles. Let me assure before we go on that Rusty has since grown out of his childish ways and is now a great man.

So as every child does on Easter Eve all of us (myself, sister, brother, Rusty and Steven) would leave our baskets out for the bunny to fill. The next morning would bring a jealousy like no other. My brother, sister and I would have our meager baskets filled with some chocolate goodies, jelly beans, maybe some socks and undies. One time I even received a Shawn Cassidy iron t-shirt from the Bunny. Let me note that what I am referring to as meager was sufficient for an Easter Basket then and now but all is relative. Rusty on the other hand received an Easter basket overflowing with goodies. Steven's basket was pretty big too but I still recall Rusty's taking the top honors. His was your dream basket, every kid would have envied it. As I'd look at Rusty's basket and that smug look on his face I couldn't help but think... how does he get more stuff than I do? He is naughty. Isn't there a naughty and nice list with the Easter Bunny too? Perhaps the worst part of Rusty's Easter Basket is that he would take the contents out one by one making sure to display it for my brother, sister and I to see. Chocolate bunny, Fun Dip, Jawbreakers, Sweettarts... You name it and it was in his basket. It was horrible and the agony of seeing ALL his candy and treats seemed to last forever. We used to resent my mother, the Bunny, for not giving as much as my Aunt did. But, ow that I am older, I understand that my mother was trying to control our sugar intake and teach to be happy with what we did receive.

After the baskets, all the kids would participate in the Annual Easter Egg hunt. Like other egg hunts, ours had a special golden egg with a cash prize and various colors of plastic egss filled with goodies. One difference though, my mother and Aunt took special care in hiding the golden egg. The two of them would head out into the yard sporting gardening gloves. They would hide the plastic eggs in plain sight but the coveted golden egg was in a special, hard to find/retrieve hiding place. This is where the gloves came in. The golden egg would be in a mud puddle (sloppy and wet), mixed in an ant hill (poor ants were disturbed not once but twice), tucked deep into a holly bush (just far enough to ensure that whoever found the golden egg had to work hard to get it and would get poked in the process),etc. I can't remember all of the places, they say that you soemtimes block out traumatic events in your life. ;)Anyways, it became a challenge for my Aunt and mother to find new and some what painful/gross places to hide the golden eggs. Some other possibilities for the golden egg hiding place I am sure were to: attach it to a homemade ticking time bomb, place it inside radioactive waste, tie it to a bucking bull's horns, set it in the middle of a raging oil fire, place it inside a killer bee's hive, etc. Although their hiding places were a bit demented and as a result of some alcohol, we all survived and have fond memories of our egg hunts.

I am hoping to make some great Easter memories for my girls. We like to dye eggs, look for hidden eggs(in safe places), eat a wonderful family dinner and wear special spring dresses. Each year brings more memories of Egg hunts where the eggs were found and place in the basket by mom to scurring around the yard to find the most. From cracking more eggs than dyeing to loving to dye eggs and being creative to then dreading it. What about you? What are some of your most memorable Easter moments. Happy Easter everyone.