When I was a kid, I honestly didn't know what Easter was about. No idea. That is, it was about eggs and rabbits and candy, but why did people go to church? No clue. Much much later, when I was in grad school, I went to a Presbyterian church for a few years, and learned what religious Easter is all about. I found it interesting, even moving, in a spiritual way. I never really believed in the whole Resurrection thing, but I liked the rhythm of the church year, Lent as a time of meditation, and then the joyous Easter -- even though for me Easter was joyous because it was springtime and there were eggs and rabbits and candy.
What on earth am I going to teach my kids about this? In a year or two I think I'm going to need to say something. I don't want them to be as mixed up as I was. Oh well, maybe when it's time I'll have some ideas.
Anyway, I was looking back at photos from previous Easters. Their first Easter, in 2008, they were just a few weeks old. Aunt Nancy was visiting and I think she made Easter dinner and gave them a bunny. I can't find a photo that screams Easter, but here's one from a week or two later:
Easter 2009 was our first in Ridgecrest. The babies were just past their first birthday. Here they are with their Easter stash:
All they got were some bunnies (all of which they already owned) and some plastic eggs with nothing in them. And they stayed in their cribs until we got them up. Baby A wasn't even walking yet. Baby B maybe had just started. The good old days.
Last year, Easter 2010, was more complicated. As you can see, there are actual chocolate rabbits in those baskets:
None of the stuffed animals were new, but the little dolls and the cars were Easter gifts. Delighted smiles very quickly turned to tears as Baby A commandeered all the cars for himself.
This year's loot looked very much like last year's, except more jelly beans. Once again, all the stuffed animals were already ours (but the toy cars were new):
The big difference this year was that now the boys get up before us. I heard them, as I lay in bed trying not to wake up (it was a little before 7 am). I heard the door to their room open, I heard them go down the hall. I heard Baby A say "Look at these!" and Baby B's cries of delight as he too spotted the display. Then I heard munching, and then a little later, "Need a paper towel!" so then I got up. They'd spilled half a container of bubbles -- I don't know what possessed me to put that in their baskets. By the time I got out there to clean it up, they'd eaten all their chocolate bunnies and quite a few of the jelly beans.
After Mom and Dad had breakfast (and boos had more jelly beans), we had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard, and that was fun.
For lunch, we drove the 60 miles to Olancha and went to the Ranch House Cafe, because it's one of the few places where the boos sort of behave themselves. The one problem was that for Easter, the Ranch House Cafe set out a mechanical stuffed rabbit that scared Baby B half to death the last time we were there, a few weeks ago. So he didn't want to go today, but we talked him into it by telling him we'd stay far away from the rabbit. Of course our waitress got off to a bad start by urging the twins to go see the rabbit, but we explained the situation to her and she backed down.
After lunch, we decided to drive another 20 miles or so north to Lone Pine, where there's a very nice park with green grass and a little stream running through it, and we played there for quite a while.
On the way back to Ridgecrest the winds kicked up, and we were absolutely blown to bits. But we made it home. Rocket Boy decided to make egg salad for dinner (out of some of the hard-boiled eggs we dyed yesterday), but the boos did not find it appealing. I remember that from childhood -- it's so fun to dye eggs, but then you don't really want anything to do with them later. Tomorrow I'm going to make deviled eggs with the rest. And that'll be our Easter.
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