Happy Easter

Usually the day before Easter, my mom would round up my older brother and I, and send us upstairs to his room for a few minutes. She’d say, “Don’t look out the window or you’ll be in trouble.“ We’d sit there for a couple of minutes and then hear the doorbell ring. That was our cue. We’d go running down the stairs and fling open that front door because it mean that the Easter Bunny had arrived.

Outside on our front step were two baskets. Conveniently, they were the same baskets the Easter bunny had used all the years prior. They also had the same mish mash of Easter grass from several years, strewn together. But, inside those baskets would lie single pieces of candy and if we were lucky, a small snack bag of candy… and we thought we had won the lottery! We felt so cool that the Easter Bunny came to our house, and boy was he quick! He’d ring the doorbell and vanish. My brother and I would sit and savor every piece that we were given in that basket, and wait for church the next day because it meant that we got a new outfit to wear.

As I got older, Easter started to become the real deal—I mean, it felt like Christmas. I remember walking down the stairs one Easter morning on a pink grass trail that led to the kitchen. In the kitchen was hanging an Easter Dress, Easter shoes, a pound of Fannie May chocolates, cash in some plastic put together eggs, and Sephora makeup.

Now, I don’t get Easter baskets. If I’m in my hometown during Easter, my parents give me a little chocolate, but I still love to see the pictures of children waking up, seeing the Easter Bunny had visited their house through the night. It reminds me of the more simple, magical times of my brother and I waiting for our baskets to arrive. It reminds me of Easter Egg hunts at Grandma Tillie’s, yummy Easter meals and just family being together…and of course, who can forget that brand new Easter Church outfit?

So, while your family may go all out for Easter, decorate the house up to the nines, have a big family meal and Easter egg hunt, or you just get a few pieces of candy while you’re with those most important to you; my family always likes to remember the real reason Easter is important to us. It’s the day that we celebrate Jesus resurrecting after giving his life for us. From all of us at Royal + Reese, Happy Easter!