Easter

Easter

Being a parent, holidays take on new meanings...

Growing up, holidays start to lose their glamour as you realize the true nature of "Santa Claus" or "The Easter Bunny".  But this glamour is returned when your children are able to experience the magic of the holiday.  As well, Holidays change as you grow up because you start to focus on the real meaning of the holiday (Easter = the Savior's resurrection) instead of the treats and surprises involved with the holiday.

This particular holiday we tried to make special for Lily.  She is still a little young, but gaining a greater understanding for each holiday that passes.  We wanted to really try to make an effort to make this holiday special for her.  So we got her some special treats!

Can you tell what her favorite gift of the whole basket was?  Frozen cereal!  It was a hit!

She liked the little bunny that the Easter Bunny brought also...

But we couldn't go anywhere or do anything until we had eaten our 'Frozen' cereal (or at least all the marshmallows in it).

That was probably a good thing because it was really cold this specific morning and we wanted to wait until it warmed up a bit to go and gather eggs.  However, when she looked out the back window and saw the "eggs" she wanted to go and get them right away.

So we bundled up and gathered eggs as quickly as possible.  At first she wanted to open each egg as she gathered it, but with our guidance, she learned to just gather them and put them in her basket to open for later.

When we came inside to open eggs, she wanted to eat each one right away.  Unless the egg was filled with goldfish.  Those goldfish went to the side and all the other treats were eaten.  Holy cow - she was a good eater today - but of course - if you had treats all morning, you'd be a good eater too!

I think that she grasped the idea of Easter and gathering eggs, because the next few mornings she went to the back window and said "Easter Bunny.  Easter Bunny." Hoping that she could go and gather eggs, and thus get more treats.  This has been a good teaching moment to explain why holidays are so important and why they happen only once a year and how we need to make them as extra special as possible.  As Lily gets older, we will include Michal's Polish tradition of going to get baskets blessed the day before Easter Sunday.  But for now, we are so happy of how Easter turned out for Lily, because she was so happy and excited!