I have a lot of great memories about Easter. When Cherie and I were small, we would wake up on Easter morning and there would be a trail of candy coated beer nuts leading us to sugary treasures. Who can forget mountains of foil covered chocolate eggs or mounds of jelly beans. The big prize was always a large chocolate bunny, and sometimes, we would get a solid bunny with rice crisps! Those were definitely a favourite find.

Of course, no Easter morning would be complete without a new outfit (I fondly remember a pair of navy blue pants and a blue, purple and pink plaid shirt) along with some new spring toys to play with outside. Sometimes we would get a badminton set (our net was always a line drawn down the middle of our drive-way) or those paddles with the rubber balls attached. We always had new bubble blowing stuff (I don’t know what the official name for this stuff is!) and, of course, a new skipping rope.

When that smell of spring is in the air, the sky is bright blue and the sun is shining down, my sister and I (still) refer to these early days of spring as “skipping days”. Not because we would skip school, but because it was this type of day when we would pull out our new skipping ropes and skip up and down our drive-way.

Our Easter Sunday would always end with a big family dinner at Grandma’s. It was always turkey with all the trimmings, including cookies, pies and other assorted desserts.

As commonly happens, as we got older, we grew out of these Easter weekend habits. We would still get together for a large family dinner, but the innocence of searching for candy and new spring toys had all but disappeared. Of course, a girl never grows out of the habit of a new spring outfit, so that tradition still lives on strong 🙂

One year, our father, never wanting to see his girls completely grown up, came up with a new idea for Easter morning. Carrying on in the tradition of the Easter Bunny, our dad hid loonies throughout the house. Now, our dad loved a good puzzle, so you can imagine where he hid these loonies: in the flour jar, in the filter of the coffee maker, in the wainscoting, in the ceiling seams. Oh yeah, no joke, he had a map of where he hid the loonies and would sit at the kitchen table indicating to Cherie and I, warmer or colder. Oh how we wished for a trail of candy coated beer nuts to help us!

As life moves forward our past memories help us build our own traditions. I spent last Easter with Cherie, Dwayne and Sam. The look of amazement on Sam’s face when he came down the stairs on Easter morning to find eggs on each step along with foil covered chocolate eggs and toys hidden in the living room filled my heart with joy. To see memories being created through the eyes of a child it truly a wonderful thing.

I wish you and your family a Happy Easter. I hope your weekend is filled with friends and family as you make memories and carry on your own traditions.