For the first time in about 25 years, I’m making an Easter basket.
The Easter Bunny is coming to my house tomorrow, because my favorite two-year-old is also coming to my house tomorrow, and E. Bunny needs some help.
Tie-dyed eggs, gelatin eggs, golden eggs. Plain old Easter eggs made with dye and vinegar? No eggs? Or, plastic eggs?
What can I put in the basket to impress this grandson of mine?
Chocolate?
I admit to sticking pins into the chocolate bunnies of my childhood to find out which were hollow, solid chocolate or hiding some inedible cream filling. The latter, I switched with my brother’s solid chocolate ones.
Jelly beans? I loved them all. Except for the black ones, which also ended up in Brother’s basket.
Maybe plastic isn’t such a bad idea, since some come with Matchbook cars inside. But, better than chocolate?
The two-year-old’s Mother isn’t crazy about giving him candy, and because I’m not willing to stick grapes or cherry tomatoes in the basket for color, I’m shopping today for alternatives, something creative.
Growing up, Easter was big. It was jelly beans and eggs and chocolate in huge baskets. A new outfit, and shoes And one year, two ducklings.
The ducks, however, soon disappeared. To a farm, my father said, where his friend Leo had a lot of other ducks for them to play with. Leo not only did indeed have a lot of other ducks, he also prepared a lot of ducks for dining tables.
How about peeps. Those marshmallow creatures. Cute, but inedible. A food column suggested that you bury them in Jello for Easter dessert. I don't think so.
I think I’ll just do a carrot cake. Not a lambcake.
My kids still remember the lambcake I ruined one Easter. An aunt gave it to us to take home and decorate with beautiful white fluffy frosting, something really neat for eyes and lips, and green grass around it. That’s how hers always looked.
First I knocked the ears off. Sticking them on with toothpicks, I knocked the whole head off. While I was gluing it back on with the weak, runny, but not fluffy, frosting, the whole thing started to crumble.
The kids realized that I was not doing a good job, and had, indeed, ruined their cake, and it was not a happy day.
So, today, I’ll start with the grass for the basket, go on to the plastic eggs, continue with a toy, maybe a stuffed bunny. No ducks, no lambcake. But, I will hide a few chocolates for him to find. If you see me shopping, I’m open to suggestions.
This is important to me. Because Aidan is important to me. And Easter is important to me.
This Easter Sunday, he’ll have a basket that I’m hoping he’ll remember.
This is, afterall, a season of hope, familial ties, traditions.
As Father Kyriakos Saravelas, the former Dean of St. George Greek Cathedral in Springfield, once reminded me, this Holy Week is a journey, from death to life, the ancient promise of new life, a time to stop and take stock of the importance of life.
Happy Easter to you.