Easter Yum!

Family gatherings are GREAT!

They are definitely different now that I'm older. Back in the day, we'd go to church, mom would make a HUGE dinner and then we'd open our Easter baskets. Now my mom knew how to make an Easter basket, full of candy and few toys, wrapped so nicely it looked like it came from the store. My siblings and I would sit in the living room, dump out the baskets and would begin a trading routine that would make Wall Street floor traders step back and say "Wow." You would never have know that money was tight. Easter dinner was also as amazing. Glazed ham, potatoes, veggies, etc. Honey Baked Ham would have been proud.

We had these dinners and Easter baskets well into adulthood. When I was dating my wife, mom even made one for her. So here I am, in my mid twenties and married and still getting an Easter basket from my mom. Life was good. Then it all changed...

When I was 27, I got diagnosed with "the Sugar." So my mom, being the great lady she is continued the Easter basket tradition, but instead of all the great candy that I had been accustomed too, it was replaced with Sugar Free versions. No one wanted to trade with me anymore and to top it all off, sugar free candy gives you a bad stomach ache and several visits to the bathroom (if you know what I mean).

So that was it, the last year of the Easter basket for Davis kids. It even translated to Christmas with our stockings. No more candy there either. But I digress.

Now back to the present, I said that family gathering are different now that I'm older. Well here goes. We still go to church. We still have a HUGE dinner, but now we all participate. We bring dishes to pass, luckily Mom still takes care of the ham. And one thing that was new this year, Easter baskets re-emerged. Now don't get to excited because it wasn't for the Davis kids, it was for the grandkids. Little E and his cousin got Easter baskets from Grammie and Puppa. These baskets were bigger than any basket I ever got as a kid. Thankfully there wasn't any candy in it, since Little E is a month old and his cousin is 22 months old, but they were full of toys, books, games, etc.

Apparently my mom didn't forget how to make an Easter basket, she was just waiting for grandkids before she resurrected her talents. It was fun though watching the grandkids "open" their baskets. They had no clue the long tradition of the Easter basket, they didn't know that Daddy and Mommy and Auntie and Uncle got them growing up. They just enjoyed the moment.

So even though I don't get an Easter basket anymore, it's really great seeing the excitement in my niece's eyes as she played with a carrot shaped bat. Little E was pretty much oblivious to what was going on, but I know in the future, he'll have the same excitement. Who wouldn't?