Thank you Easter Bunny...BAWK BAWK

My name is Melinda, I am 34 years old, and I have never taken part in an Easter egg hunt. When I was little I had heard of this magical event called an Easter egg hunt. The Monday after Easter I would listen to my friends regaling stories of how they searched all over the yard and house for both real and plastic eggs. The plastic eggs were the best to find as they contained candy, small toys, and sometimes money. Because isn’t that what Easter is all about…plastic eggs filled with MONEY? I just felt my mom and brother rolls theirs eyes and shake their heads at that last sentence. It was a joke…I know that Easter is all about JESUS (and candy) and nothing but JESUS (and dyed eggs…and in some houses plastic eggs filled with MONEY). As you know Husband is Latino and Latinos have a whole different twist with what one does with Easter eggs. They call them Cascarones. A cascarones is an egg that has had the insides blown out, is decorated like an Easter egg, and then filled with confetti. The Mexican tradition is to break the cascarones over the head for good luck. Husband has told me stories of him and many cousins running around his grandma’s backyard smashing eggs over each other’s heads. There is even a story about, how after a few adult beverages, the Aunts and Uncles got involved. Instead of cascarones, they used whole, raw eggs. The cascarones sound like a fun tradition, not as fun as plastic eggs filled with money, but fun nonetheless. My family had its own Easter tradition. We did all the usual Easter stuff like dying eggs, going to church, and having ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner. Instead of the Easter Bunny hiding eggs all over the yard and the house, he hid our Easter baskets. We would wake up and run all over the house looking in every nook and cranny for those baskets. The Easter bunny did not disappoint. The amount of candy in those baskets made the best of Halloween hauls pale in comparison. Once found we would eat jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and Cadbury crème eggs for breakfast. We would then head to church (because Easter is all about JESUS) hopped up on sugar. As I am alone up here in Washington now, I will be spending the day with a coworker of Husband’s and her family. It is sunny right now, and if the weather holds there will be an Easter egg hunt. I am pretty excited about that. I hope those little kids are ready for some stiff competition…because I am in it to win it. While I don’t wave my religious/spiritual beliefs around, I think it is important to take a step back to reflect on ourselves and to respect the beliefs of others. Enjoy your friends and family and the rebirth of spring. Happy Easter!