Easter

I am a lover of rituals. Easter requires crafts, candy, photos, baskets and family. It is the making of one great ritual. Throw away the winter. Throw away the blues. It is springtime and time for rebirth.

I grew up Catholic and that feature of the religion has become the one I miss or treasure. When I married an atheist, I had to find ways to have family rituals without attaching God. I disagree with the Catholic Church enough to not be able to remain Catholic so I needed a plan. What would replace First Communion? May Procession? Crying over who got the anklet socks with the lace before church in Sunday morning? Singing in communion with a large group songs that we all know the words to?

I can’t replace First Communion and Folk mass. Early on in the baby years I found these books by Meg Cox and it was a fulfillment to my need for rituals.

Some of our rituals have stuck throughout time and some have lasted as long as we needed and then were replaced or adjusted. Root beer floats every Friday night was essential in the early school years but now my big kids are rarely around on a Friday night- but when we need some reminder of family and love a float does the trick anytime. I dye food on Valentine’s Day red- red pancakes, spaghetti sauce with red noodles, strawberry cream cheese, cranberry ginger ale. I make Mim coffee milk on Saturdays and Sundays. At supper, we share roses and thorns. Roses are the best thing that happened today and thorns are the opposite. Cheers, The Office and Parks and Rec are shows we watch ritualistically before bed to forget the cares of the day. My kids know more camp songs than most seasoned campers. We have this song by Peter Paul and Mary where I put there names and mess up the original lyrics (which is my specialty) and I have sung that song a million times waiting for the Sandman to come..

Red light, green light, all around the town, Dolly come out and play. Hey Mr Tuck, now don’t you cry. Papa’s gonna take you for a pony ride.

Easter is a ritual rich holiday. Egg hunts in bonnets. Here comes Peter Cottontail. The pastel baskets and the multiplying strands of plastic green grass. The candy. The chocolate bunny. I could pin Easter crafts and Easter treats on Pinterest for too many hours.

A couple of my favorites over the years have been George’s giant Rice Krispie Treat Easter Bunny cake and the time we planted tiny flowers and moss scavenged from the yard in the broken dyed eggs.

Did you know that you can mold Easter eggs by stuffing plastic eggs with the sticky marshmallow cereal recipe?

One year, we are at my mother in law’s house for Easter. She had boiled one dozen eggs for my six kids to dye. Dyeing eggs is to me the best part of the holiday. I fell in love with the smell of vinegar just because of this occasion. And after the kids dyed there two eggs each, instead of getting sad, they dyed gravel rocks from her driveway. And I beamed watching my little holiday spreaders.

We used sand buckets as Easter baskets for years. I love function and cute mixed together.

Candy- I believe a chocolate bunny or chick is important. Jelly belly jelly beans. Peeps are more for decoration in our house and we aren’t really Cadbury egg people either. We love Pez characters. You can never go wrong with Reese’s.

I love the extras. I have to admit I am a last minute mama even though I don’t intend to be one. But I am good at concocting a cute basket display.

Ideas for basket supplies (For many Easters, we wanted to focus on treats that weren’t edible so that it didn’t make Easter’s focus food. A person with an eating disorder is anxious about food and eating, to say the least, so it takes a concentrated effort to shift the focus from candy to happy.

• Bottles of Peach Nehi Soda
• Flower seed packets
• Beach shovels
• Bathing suits
• Flip flops
• Jump ropes
• Super balls
• Frisbees
• Kites
• Bandannas
• Jelly cat stuffed animals but they are few and far between because 6 kids can = 2,000 stuffed animals in the blink of an eye.
• New shin guards
• Lacrosse balls
• Swim goggles
• Thera putty
• Markers/ Crayons
• Key chains for backpacks
• Wallets
• Duct tape
• Washi tape
• Sonny Angels
• Rubik Cube
• Paper dolls
• Bath bombs

I am a huge fan of thrift stores and I could look for days for basket goodies. Thrift stores frustrate some because you can’t guarantee what you will find. Pretty easy to find for Easter would be- books, albums, change purse, Easter baskets, cool t-shirts, Easter dresses for little girls, flower pots, baby clothes to dress large baby dolls, and stuffed animals.

Every holiday is an opportunity for new books!

Throw in a couple of easily doable Easter crafts and we have a HOLIDAY.

Making a jelly bean bracelet.

Temporary tattoo Easter eggs

Peeps Photos We could go out into the wild better known as the city of Atlanta and photograph peeps in their natural habitat.