bunny notes

funny what one finds in her blog drafts. this is officially one year old:

i remember easter my sr yr of college only for how i spent some part of the holiday sitting on top of our bathroom counter at 118 talking to vern with the door shut. i'd never sat on that counter before. it reminded me a little of sitting on the kitchen table talking with mom as she cooked. the bathroom because by then i no longer had a room in my childhood home. on the sink because it felt too odd sitting on the toilet, lid closed or not, talking to my __. vern. my brain always caught at the word 'boyfriend' where husband has always flowed easily.

we spent every easter after together. i always made him a basket. i always ate the majority of his candy because he neglects sugar. except the one year i determined i was not. no easter bunny would be visiting us that season. early then that easter morning i had a positive pregnancy test and was so sour. what a fitting addition to a basket that would been. i grumped at the new dad for this whole loss of the sweet tell was of course his fault for never basking in basket goodness.

save the cadbury egg. he does like those. i do not. for some time at the farm his mom always had on the counter one egg for each of us. joel got my share after the amusement of me once tasting mine.

i always enjoy dyeing eggs. you get to know a lot about people during art projects. vern will plop an egg into one color and just sit on it. i'll have three done all in varied hues and mixed shades and he'll still be waiting on just that one. one look at maddy's brilliant purple hands and it's plain the kids take after their father.

with young kids again, doris began hiding eggs filled with change and forgot about our cadburys. she always leaves them in plain view, the eggs. this year that made it a little lame for caleb. walking in and spotting the entire loot immediately. i think this is so grandma remembers where all the loot is as well. it seems it was a thanksgiving once long before his birth that a curtain was brushed and an egg popped out. no one could remember the last time the bunny had visited.

it's the egg hunt at the farm that caleb most remembered as being 'easter' from years past. i hope that memory never dims for him. his easter basket arrived one year from his aunt kel. we found a match for maddy last year and baby owen this. i'm not sure how to explain how the easter bunny fills the same baskets every year, with the same eggs and same grass from the easter storage tub they help exhume. maybe i over-estimate a child's intuitive suspension of disbelief.

if we get to church, that's when the easter bunny arrives. otherwise the baskets are on the table come easter morning. the kids sat on the table, too, until this year when maddy wanted to be in the bay window. next year maybe we try the miller way and leave an egg trail to hidden baskets. because we don't really have any steadfast easter traditions from our childhoods. we've got room to play until we find the right fit for our family. and that has made all the difference.