Easter Eggs

This morning I carried out a "ritual" that I started about five years ago when my granddaughter had just turned three. I had bought empty plastic Easter eggs which I intended to fill with things that a three-year old could eat: marshmallows, Fruit Loops, etc. On my way home from Easter Vigil that Saturday night, I stopped at the local Jewel to get my "supplies."

The next morning, before leaving for worship, I hid the eggs in obvious places in our condo. When my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter came over for Easter dinner later that day, Sophia found all the eggs and had a great time opening them and discovering what "goodies" Grandpa had put in them.

Five years later, Sophia has a four-year-old brother who also gets involved in the Easter egg hunt. And, we've grown from just a dozen or so eggs to many, many more. To solve the problem of one kid getting more than another, Grandpa has decided that each child gets three different colors of eggs. That way, they can pick up as many as they find, but at the end of the "hunt," eggs are divided by color; each kid gets exactly the same.

The eggs are all filled--with mini-marshmallows, fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, little boxes of raisins, jelly beans, Fruit Loops, and some other "goodies." I won't hide them until tomorrow morning. It's great fun and definitely "grandpa's thing."

There are special surprises in six of the eggs: grandpa empties out the loose change bucket in his office and put that change in six of the eggs.

I hope I'm able to carry on this tradition for a good many years to come.