Hopping Holidays

I just remembered how much I love Easter.

Spring is my favorite season, with the fresh smell of rain, mud, and grass being mowed. I grew up in Western New York and haven't forgotten (I currently live in Georgia) the way everything begins to awaken this time of year...pretty little buds on trees and sprouts popping out of the ground. It's a rejuvenating time of year.

In the midst of all this wonderful springtime renewal is Easter. We didn't decorate the house for Easter this year. I have enough on my hands getting it show ready with three kids. I figured holiday decorations would complicate things. And we're not even going to be here for the actual holiday. We're taking a quick family vacation to the Georgia Aquarium. So excited! Today I just got our baskets out to take with us...and I remembered.

I love Easter! The bright colors, the cute little bunnies and chicks...even the pesky grass that gets everywhere but is way better than pine needles! And, of course, there are the childhood memories of Easter.

Grandma always decorated an Easter Tree in the front yard, hanging pastel eggs all over it. She had a basket of hard boiled eggs on the table for our family gathering. Those eggs she colored with onion skins and they were the warmest shades of tan and brown. Outside she sat a big blow up rabbit in one of her many gardens with a nest of eggs.

My cousins and I would dress in our Easter best and giggle through dinner at the kids' table. Afterwards we'd change into play clothes and run outside. One year we ran out and found some of the eggs in the blow up bunny's nest had hatched and there were furry little baby bunnies to pet. We sat out there and cooed and petted until my mom came out and was very upset to find us playing with dead rabbits!

It turns out that Grandpa had found the little dead bunnies on the front step that morning, presumably left by one of the barn cats. He put them in the nest to see if anyone would notice. He found the whole situation much more hilarious than Mom and Grandma.

How can you not love a holiday with such hopping good fun!?