Easter, Easter, Easter. It's the one holiday we have never had negotiation/conflict with the other family; no every other year, split the holiday smack down the middle. I credit it to the fact that the majority of Easter's fell on the other families weekends and it was a Holiday that Raylan and I were ok about letting the dice roll. If we had the kids great! If not that was ok as well!
The first year we realized that we wouldn't have the kids for Easter Sunday, we made an executive decision that the Easter Bunny would come the weekend before. EB decided to set an Easter Egg strategically in their bedrooms so when they woke up they might stumble upon it and wonder "What the Heck!" And that they did. I remember Elle running into our bedroom, "Mom! Mom! Wake up! The Easter Bunny came and left this in my bedroom and I noticed another one over here." That look was priceless, she was excited beyond words.
I started loving NOT having them on Easter. The Easter Bunny could come sometime around Easter and they always seemed infinitely more surprised/excited about the Egg hunt because of it. It got to the point a few years ago that we had over 180 eggs for the kids to find and it seemed like it just wasn't enough! We would start out - Find 20. Ok another 20...... It didn't matter how many we added year after year, they always wanted to find more! There was the occasional egg that we didn't find until June, luckily they were plastic eggs so no rotting worries.
I have to admit I miss the late nights helping EB prepare for the kids in the morning. This year there was no eggs to hide, baskets to fill nor the massive wide eye excitement in the morning. Little Hart went to Greta's to help with EB for her younger siblings. Jax and Elle woke up leisurely. We all headed over to the Aunt and Uncles for lunch and egg hunt with the younger cousins. Elle helped the cousins look for eggs, Jax and Little Hart sat inside around the table.
I thought; they've grown up, another Hartman Family Tradition has become a memory. In looking back I'm glad that we took the opportunity to enjoy the Holiday with the kids in a different way. Even though it wasn't on "THE DAY" most of the time, it's one of my favorite memories with the kids.
It made me wonder if we could make a call out for EB to come home and start it all over again!