bunny tales.

As far back as I can remember, my family has never celebrated Easter in a religious way. I mean, I knew the general story - Jesus was crucified, entombed in a cave and then rose from the dead. Got it.

But Easter, to my childhood (okay, and adulthood) self, is about bunnies.
And baskets, and candy, and egg hunts, and dinner at Grandma's house.

Our baskets were pretty classic... and now that I think about it, pretty self serving for my mom. (She was no dummy.) We had the usual plastic eggs filled with jelly beans or spare change (these made the greatest sounds), PEEPS (chick and bunny, taken OUT of their packages and arranged in the "grass" so they were at the perfect stage of stale by the time morning arrived), Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (however many were left after Mom likely "snacked" on these while putting the baskets together), chocolate bunnies (I would only eat the ears, so Mom got the rest) and Cadbury Creme Eggs (which I'm pretty sure neither my sister or I liked, but Mom loved).

I may have out grown the egg hunts early on, but Easter baskets continued well into adulthood for my sister and me. I remember my senior year of high school, I was in New York over Spring Break with my dad and my best friend Justin. It happened to fall over Easter, and sure enough that Sunday morning when Justin and I got up there were baskets of candy hidden (always hidden) in our hotel rooms. (Mine was behind the curtains and I think Justin's was in the bathtub. Stefanie's was in the mail en route to her college dorm.) It is still a mystery to me whether Dad... I mean, the Easter Bunny... brought his supplies all the way to NYC from Ohio, or if he hopped on down to the Duane Reed on the corner.

Even after I moved to Chicago, Stefanie and I would still receive Easter packages. And this was no "box full of candy" - there was always a basket inside. I can just imagine my dad standing at the kitchen counter with two pastel baskets, that messy "easter grass", bags of candy, and packing supplies. We may have groaned and teased Dad about it, but I loved it.

So basically, for me, Easter was this perfect day that combined Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas stockings (in basket form).

Look at this cute little guy. He looks like he's saying "Please don't take my egg..."