Easter 2018
Greetings to all!
He is Risen!
The past two Saturdays, which Xavier and I use as clean-the-house days during Rebecca's absence, I have told Xavier (who has not fully engaged in his part of the cleaning activities in order to indulge in his new toy obsession) the Easter Bunny is not going to hide eggs in messy rooms. The reason, I explained, was that the Bunny does not think you find his eggs in all the mess.
Xavier took that line of reasoning to heart more than I expected. Middle Earth has had his attention these past two Saturdays.
This year is the first year Xavier engaged in the egg hunt/Easter Bunny side of Easter. He knew what an egg hunt meant and eagerly anticipated it.
I did ask him from time to time, and this morning when he woke up, why is Easter important and what is the correct focus. His answer is always "Jesus died. He rose from the dead." Satisfied with his response, I turned him loose on the rest of the house.
Last night, Xavier went to sleep easier than I expected. I waited a couple of hours, broke out the Bunny Loot and put on my Bunny ears.
I learned a few things. First, I over-bought candy, and not just a little. One bag of jelly beans proved more than enough. Though, I did do well on the chocolate candies side.
Second, hiding Bunny Loot is not as easy as it looks on paper. Hiding the small toys in places to create the greatest impact was not so difficult. The candy surprised me in its difficulty. I hid it high, I hid it low. I hid behind doors, in toys, in nooks and crannies. The hunt to find places to hide candy proved laborious. Who knew?
A third thing I learned was how unsatisfying it was hiding candy and toys when Rebecca was not there to take part in the operation. Our first egg hiding, and it was not a shared event.
At last, I entered Xavier's room. I had thought to hide eggs in several places in his room, but decided to only place a toy and chocolate bunny in a place he would see when he awoke. Bedtime for Daddy.
Xavier, who went to sleep concerned the Bunny might not come, awoke with help from Daddy (we needed to make the early service at church today). It took a few minutes of Xavier chatting to me about a couple of subjects (one being he thought the EB missed our house) before he noted the Lego City kit and chocolate bunny near his bed.
His eyes lit up and light bulbs started turning on! He looked outside. The morning started unusually cold, and looked like snow (the EB hid no eggs outdoors). Xavier looked out the window of his room and explained he did not think any eggs were outside because of the weather.
His face then lit up as he realized if the EB left stuff in his room, then there must be eggs elsewhere in the house. "I think the Easter Bunny hid more toys in the house!" He ran through the house into Middle Earth.
It was awesome, his response to finding eggs. He noted those up high first. Squealing with delight, he pointed at them saying "There's some way up there!"
He raced around collecting his finds and putting them on a table. It took me a while to get him into the dining area to find his basket, which contained some loot as well.
Shortly after getting his basket, he saw it—up on the mantle of the fireplace—the BIG toy. One of the larger Lego City kits. If only I could bottle his surprise, innocent joy and excitement!
We only had about :35 minutes from the time he got up until we needed to leave for church. He got dressed and ate breakfast and we left with time to spare on the clock. That is an Easter Miracle!
Christ is Risen!