All posts tagged with: children

Easter

April 6, 2007 | Filed Under Main | No Comments

Maybe I’m a kid at heart (or possibly just a child. It depends on the day). But certain holidays get me totally focused. One of them is Easter. I always liked Easter. Of course, having a basket of candy was a very appealing thing. And days off from school. The occasional Easter egg hunt. I also started to look forward to the week of religious-themed films on “The 4:30 Movie” prior to Easter. Five days of the King Of Kings followed by The Robe. What more could you want from a holiday? My parents always had the whole day arranged. They would do their work in the dead of night so that surprises were ready for us in the morning.
Fast forward a couple of decades later, and I get to do Easter for my son, Chris. Now, I started off small because walking was an issue. Just a basket – jelly beans, some peeps, a solid chocolate rabbit, and chocolate eggs. A straight forward, standard basket. Then as he became more mobile, I started setting little trails of jelly beans from his room to lead him to the basket. Sometimes, there would be fake trails. This worked okay until I made the trail too complex one year and Chris came up to the bedroom crying because he couldn’t find the basket. Then I started using the hollow, plastic eggs for the trail and filling them with little toys or cars. One year I used silver dollars.
Later years became bigger. The toys became more important than the candy. For example, there was a Pokemon basket when he was heavy in that phase. Also, the candy strayed from the traditional to the exotic. See - I get obsessed. I’m pretty good at buying gifts. I think about it. I look for ideas. I try to put together a theme. I challenge myself. I enjoy it! Especially if I’m shopping for Chris. Trust me, I am great at shopping for a child. My wife is an entirely different matter. I haven’t always been a successful in that endeavour. But not for lack of trying. How many guys do you know gave their loved one PiL’s Metal Box for Valentine’s Day? Not bad…
However, the past few years have been somewhat low key as he morphed from child to teenager. I even thought we wouldn’t have a basket this year – which would be the first time ever. But then Chris actually suggested what types of candy he would like to see in the basket. So I started thinking about it again. And I started shopping. And I’ve got the hollow, plastic eggs and some small things to put in them and I’ll make a trail. I think I have enough candy for the month – and in many delectable flavors! Peeps of all shapes and sizes. A few toys. I’m going all out this year.
Why?
Because he’s seventeen. He’s my only child. And I may not get the chance to do this again. He’s growing up. It may start to look stupid to him. He’ll grow out of it. He has to. I did for a while, too. That’s life. But I don’t want to let him go just yet. I don’t know whether it will mean anything to him, but it means a lot to me. I can’t even explain to you how short this time has been – at least when you look back. I’ll try and stretch that for one more weekend.