I have a little anxiety when it comes to Easter season. Growing up in a hardcore Catholic household, Lent was a 40-day period of sacrifice, prayer and reflection. Every Friday, my family went to a nearby retreat center/church for Stations of the Cross. In the suburbs of Chicago, it was cold, so rain or snow, we were there. It was nice to be outdoors, sometimes we’d see deer running. Then Holy Week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we were at church. Good Friday was a day of mourning. We couldn’t go out anywhere to do anything fun, of course, no meat was a given. Saturday day, we’d be painting eggs and making Easter baskets for Sunday church fundraising. Saturday night was Easter Vigil mass and it was HOURS of mass. The choir sang EVERYTHING they possibly could, every verse, and intentionally slower and drawn out so the choir and soloists could do their thing. And Sunday, hooray, Easter Sunday mass was about an hour, we could be happy and celebrate that Jesus has Risen! and we could eat candy and hard-boiled eggs!
Fast forward a handful of years later when I have my now 2-year-old and Catholic-converted husband. I keep Lent close to heart and I love/celebrate Easter! It was my grandmother’s favorite holiday. Easter egg hunts and Easter bunny photos were not in my radar at all until social media and shared photos from friends ‘pressured’ me to do this for my son.
I was off on Tuesday so I had planned to go to the Easter bunny photos. This place had no line when it came to Easter Bunny and Santa photos so I was hoping this would be the case again. Nope, there was a 30-minute line and I was contemplating leaving, but the only reason I stayed was to get validated parking. Why pay full price for parking? Heck no!
As I waited impatiently in line, I thought, why am I subjecting Jacob to this? Who cares about pictures with an Easter Bunny. I’m definitely not going to do this next year? And why am I subjecting myself to this? I’m hungry and I hate waiting in line. And $25 for 2 5×7, 2 4×6 + 4 wallets, or $40 for a combo, etc. If you know me, you know I’m the WORST at waiting. I don’t understand how people wait in line for food (e.g., brunch on the weekends), Starbucks at the airport. But then I thought, next year there will be 2 kiddos so it’d be super cute!
Jacob was great while waiting- he snacked on Anne’s bunnies and milk. He was calm and cool as we walked up the stairs to our turn. I coached him for the last several minutes reminding him our turn was next to see the Easter Bunny, we were going to take e a few pictures, no problem! Right when I put him on the armrest, oh man!!! Things got ugly real fast! Uh oh, I was that mom and kid!! Then they gave me some treats to bribe him with, that didn’t work. Finally they said, maybe you can sit with him. Oh heck no, I said, I was not prepared at all for pictures!!! I had no make up on, was going to get a haircut after this photo session… ARGH! This was not ideal! Jacob dislikes getting pictures taken as much as I do! I sucked it up and sat with him. At the end of the photo session, Mr. Easter Bunny said I was beautiful. Awww, thanks!!!
We did an Easter egg hunt at the neighborhood park yesterday. Boy, was it a madhouse! Lots of kiddos and not enough space. They started the hunt early and it lasted probably a few minutes. Jacob got a few eggs but was more interested in playing at the playground (similar to last year). Today, the family went to church and had brunch to follow (of course, we made a reservation!).
Jacob is napping and I’m about to catch a few ZZZs myself. What funny Easter egg hunt/Bunny photo stories do you and your families have?
I hope everyone has a lovely Easter Sunday!
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