We had a great Easter today. Magoo woke up bright and early and came into my room ticked that there was a baby gate at the top of the stairs. Yes, young padawan, you really think I trust you not to run down there at the crack of dawn (as though dawn exists in Seattle before June) and eat yourself into a diabetic coma? Not so much with the trusting. Very much with the child restraints. He calmed a bit when I told him to snuggle in bed with me while Dan finished his shower. Calmed and then fell almost immediately back to sleep. It’s like he’d been awakened by his chocolate radar and once he realized that the chocolate was surrounded by a parentally-induced force-field, he lost the will to remain sentient.
I mean come on, after all the trouble we parents go through to help put out the baskets and make our home a welcoming environment for the bunny-man, we deserve to see the looks on their faces when they run down and dig through that grass for treats and prizes. This year Dad was in charge of “setting the mood for the bunny’s arrival — edible division” and the sugar flowed FREE-LY. Holy Dina Cow! There were a lot of chocolate and marshmallow things brought into this house, many of which will be finding their way to Megacorp in the morning.
Some things that did stay were the two giant chocolate bunnies. Each a foot tall, containing almost a pound of chocolate. They may not ever make a return trip to this house but the video of the kids gnawing on them is priceless.
I “helped the bunny feel welcome — toy division” and the kids ended up with flashlights, a big Frisbee and a rubber snake.
Church was a good opportunity to get the kids grounded back in the real meaning of the holiday, although their thoughts were never far from their treasures at home.
At one point this afternoon, Magoo ran up to me. “Oh Mom! My snake is so cute!” He then stared up at the ceiling and yelled as if to the heavens, “YANK YOU EASTER BUNNY!”
I’m not sure he lives “up there” so much. But I’m sure he heard the thanks and was grateful for it.
I cut way back on dinner this year — ham, potatoes, corn, green beans and Pillsbury crescent rolls. It was nice, not overwhelming and I think it may be a foreshadowing of Easters to come. I usually go a little crazy overboard with the side dishes and homemade everything. But this year it was simple and Laylee called me “The Best Mom Chef Ever.” Dan agreed that it was the perfect Easter dinner, not too much, just enough. Lazy pregnant Kathryn is teaching regular Kathryn many tricks and shortcuts that regular Kathryn will remember and revel in for years to come.
We then scooped up the kids, took the new gospel art book our church has just come out with and narrated through many of the major events of Christ’s life with the chronological paintings. Then we did the Easter egg lesson about the days leading up to Easter. The whole thing lasted a little over half an hour and it was fun and the kids stayed with us most of the time and participated, making me feel less guilty about the party atmosphere that accompanies the serious stuff.
I think the best part of the day was at dinner when I told Laylee and Magoo that some of our friends have asked the Easter Bunny not to visit their homes because they want to focus more on the Savior and what He did for us and less on the candy and treats. They looked horrified and then an analogy came to me.
Can you imagine if it was your birthday and some friends threw a huge party and celebrated and had treats and gave each other presents and food and played games but never looked at you or talked to you or wrote your name on the cake? Technically it was your birthday party but everyone there ignored you. This was shocking. I told them that for a lot of people that’s how they celebrate Easter and Christmas, not giving any thought to what the celebration was really about.
Laylee thought this was awful. But I explained. Maybe a lot of those people didn’t even know it was your birthday or that birthdays were even important. Maybe they just knew there was a celebration and thought it would be a great time to get together with family and friends to have a good time. But we know when your birthday is and why we’re celebrating so we need to make sure to celebrate for the right reasons. And we know what Easter’s for so we need to be sure to celebrate what really matters.
I think Laylee got it. Magoo was still clutching his snake and shoveling Marie Calendar’s pie into his grinning face. At least he knew that the answer to most of our serious questions today was “Jesus?” We’ll work on him some more next year.
Janssen says
What a great analogy. Will file that away in my brain for my future mom self.
grammyelin says
I love your analogy, Kathryn. I think there are times when we are given gifts of pure inspiration and I think this was one of those times for you. I am so grateful that the Lord cares about these children that we are raising enough to help us with the task. I love that we can have fun in our celebrations while still rejoicing in the reason behind them.
Janel says
Oh, please don’t say lazy and pregnant in the same sentence. It’s not a choice, therefore it’s not laziness. It’s just a condition of having less energy, and recognizing that, and therefore being realistic about your capabilities. I think that’s a skill to be commended. And, as you said, remembered in future non-pregnant years. Thanks for the great ideas of how to mix the secular and religious celebrations.
Beck says
I remember giving control of SO many holidays to my husband while I was pregnant because I was either on bedrest or vomiting or both.
Now, of course, I have the BEST excuse for keeping lots of the generously given chocolate away from my kids: Tsk! Gluten!
Debbi says
I love your analogy and it was even my daughters birthday yesterday so I could have made it even more personal. We did pretty much the same thing you did with the eggs etc. One thing that I do to keep Easter Sunday about Jesus is I tell the kids that we scheduled the Easter bunny to come on Saturday so that we can focus on Jesus all day Sunday. That way they can get their sugar comas on Saturday and play with anything they got from the bunny man and hopefully have it mostly out of their systems by Sunday!
Allison says
Perfect analogy. I will use that one next year for sure!
Heather Lafter says
I have heard of people in Utahland having the Easter Bunny come on Friday night so Sunday can be Jesus’s day!! I think it is a good idea!
Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com says
I used the same analogy on my nieces the other day when my SIL was having trouble figuring out how to answer their questions. Obviously, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE, even if they are both lazy and pregnant.