The Real Deal

How was your Easter weekend? 

Ours was really nice.  Thanks for asking.

All of us had the day off on Friday so we decided, while everyone else had school to make up for a snow day, to take the opportunity to go to the zoo.  Sure there was rain in the forecast and a line of thunderstorms headed our way… but that didn’t stop us.  We figured that if we had a good hour or so of fun then we would just leave when it started raining (you can do that when you are zoo members and it doesn’t cost you anything in admission to go for an hour).  We did get a little concerned, however, when it was sprinkling on us before we even got out of our neighborhood.

But we pressed on and it turned out to be just a really wonderful day at the zoo.  The hour that we planned to spend turn into like three with only a little sprinkle.  And then, we topped it off with a trip to Dairy Queen.  Honey, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Saturday was shaping up to be a bit of a busy day.  Sarah had a softball game at the same time as our neighborhood’s Easter egg hunt.  So we had to divide and conquer.  Mike took Sarah to softball and I took Nathan to the egg hunt since it would be close to home and I had bread in the oven.

The egg hunt was scheduled for 11 am.  Now, I have been to these things before and have even been in charge of them before.  Nothing ever starts on time, right?  So when we walked out of our house at 11:03 to go through the gate along our back fence to walk the 50 yards to where the egg hunt would be, imagine my surprise to see kids scattered everywhere and some saying, “All the eggs are gone.” 

Once poor Nathan realized the fact that there were no more eggs to be hunted and that he wanted nothing to do with the really big white Easter bunny walking around, he headed back toward home. 

He was a little sad to say the least.

But there was consolation in the fact that we would be going to church that evening and would have a chance to do an egg hunt there.

So we hung out and played and enjoyed just a generally beautiful North Texas spring day.  Mike was texting me updates from Sarah’s game (which they won!) and when they got home, we all had some lunch and took a nap.

The boy was out cold when it was time to leave to go to church for the Easter festival (which we decided to do instead of Halloween this year… loved it!).  So Mike took Sarah and her friend up there then called to say, “You’re going to have to get the boy up.  Pre-school egg hunt is at like 4:30.”  We couldn’t miss two in one day.

So I scooped him up out of bed and hurried on up there.  Poor thing was so groggy.  And during the two hours we were there at the church, he had two opportunities to get Easter eggs… both of which he passed on. 

After all of that.

But I think this new version of an Easter egg “hunt” bothers him a bit.  You know what I mean… when they are more like scrambled eggs than hidden.  It’s just a race across an open field of grass with eggs scattered in the open for kids to simply pick up.  It’s chaos.  It’s madness.  And it eludes my introverted son.

But Easter Sunday was the real deal for us.  We had a leisurely morning of breakfast and whatnot before church.  We enjoyed an incredible time worshipping with our church family.  We got home and ate a heavenly lunch.  And then came the egg hunt.  A real egg HUNT.  I hid them everywhere…

… even up the tree.

But I have to admit that I broke the cardinal rule of Easter egg hiding.  I didn’t count how many I hid.  So we’ll be looking for the swarms of ants who find the ones with the chocolate and jelly beans inside that the kids left behind.  *sigh*

Then they took the Resurrection Egg set that we have and took turns hiding them for each other to find.

It appears to me that he might think it was worth the wait.

And I have to agree.  Sometimes it truly is best to wait for the real deal.