Old School Easter

Feelin' sort of nostalgic...thinking about the Easters of my childhood.  Let's walk down MyMemory Lane, shall we?

• Sunday lunch with the fam at Granny and Papa's....ham, dressing, chicken and dumplings, broccoli rice casserole...HELLO!
• New dress, new shoes, curly hair...even a hat and gloves when I was little
• Hunting eggs with my cousins...weather permitting (meaning there was no snow...remember, Michigan... accumulation, it was NOT actively snowing or raining).  One year, we had to hunt eggs in the house because the weather was nasty.  About a week later, there was a rather fragrant reminder of a lone, forgotten egg.  I believe that was the LAST year we hid eggs in the house.  This was just about the time that plastic, fillable eggs hit the market...much to Granny's relief.
• One year, my Aunt Jewell made me and Sister A a cake in the shape of a lamb...with green coconut grass and jelly beans....so precious!  Although, I seem to remember us being a little too joyful when we hacked poor Lamby's head off!
• The smell of vinegar and rainbow colored finger tips.
• The first year I was allowed to wear "high heels" and panty hose (NOT tights...tights are for babies), it snowed!  What's a girl to do?  She puts a pair of jeans on UNDER her dress, over her hose and puts on her snowboots...carrying her "high heels" in a bag.  I wasn't the only one doing a quick change in the bathroom at church!
• One year, Granny made homemade Easter candy.  SOOOOOOOOOOO good!  SOOOOOOO rich!!!!  You never think about a house only having one bathroom until several people want to use it!
• Singing the wonderful Easter hymns...hearing Granny "scoop and pour" her notes...watching Papa get so overcome with emotion that he couldn't even sing the words.
• Easter grass....is evil!  Granny loved it!  She'd set out decorative baskets with that stuff in it.  She'd fill our baskets with it.  She'd put it around the base of her Easter tree.  And for the next six months, would vacuum it up.  No telling how many TONS of Easter grass the poor Kirby sweeper ate before it finally gave up the ghost.
• The Easter tree...Papa would (funny, his name really was Papa Wood...Papa Wood would...HA!)find Granny a pretty branch and spray it white.  She would then decorate it with ribbons and other decorations.  She loved knick knacks and chotzkies (a fun Yiddish word for knick knacks), so there were bunnies and chicks and lambs and all matter of miniature plaster disasters on and around the tree.
• Jelly beans (only the fruit flavored kind, please....NO black), Reese's peanut butter eggs, malted eggs, Russell Stover hollow chocolate bunnies....good stuff!  No gamble chocolate...not worth it!

And even from my earliest memories, I always knew that our celebration was about more than chocolate and Easter grass.  Always.  It was never REALLY about anything but Jesus.  There's a saying that's popular at Christmas....Jesus is the reason for the season.  Did you ever think about how appropriate that is even for this season...this Easter season?  He IS the reason for Easter...his resurrection is the reason.  Think about it...without the resurrection, what sets his birth, life and death apart from any other religious or historical leader?  Nothing...it is the resurrection that clearly demonstrates how powerful God truly is.  He makes messages out of our messes.  And if the cruelty, violence and abject hatred that Christ endured isn't a mess...I don't know what is.  Look at the message that came out of that mess....death isn't the end!  Our debt is paid!  Forgiveness is waiting!  WE ARE REDEEMED!

Remember that while you bite the head off that chocolate bunny!