The Egg Hunt Is On...

Today is the day for our annual Easter Egg Hunt.

When the kids were teenagers and 'too big' for Easter baskets, I got depressed. What's a Mom to do?

So, I dyed eight dozen eggs, hid them early on Easter Sunday, and woke the beasts up.

There were only three left at home. Two boys and a girl. The other son was away in the Air Force, and the daughter was in the Army. I was slowly losing my children to their own lives, and I wanted to have some fun with them while they were still at home.

It was about 7:30 in the morning, and the party animals didn't want to get out of bed. Still in pajamas, they stood on the back patio protesting against an Easter Egg Hunt.

The rules were: Find an egg, return it to their father and he would give them a dollar bill.

They drug their feet across the lawn, each found an egg and brought it in and collected a dollar. Everything changed once they received several bills. It dawned on them that it was 'free' money. Something they could get by finding an egg! No work involved!

That's when it became fun.

They ran around the yard collecting eggs and bringing them to their father one at a time. (Remember the rule.)

I was killing myself laughing at them. Finally, Easter was fun again.

That's been at least twenty years ago, and we've done the Egg Hunt ever since.

Once the grandkids came along, there were two hunts. One for the little kids, with plastic eggs holding candy, money or both. Once they become sixteen, they can join the 'big' kids. Because shoving someone to get their hands on an egg has been known to happen.

It's something that everyone looks forward to, and something that I hold dear to my heart each year.

They might be licensed professionals, and respected by the community...but they are my kids, honoring a family tradition.

The Egg Hunt is on.