Beneath the Wraps: Reminiscing Easter

Monday, April 17, 2017

Reminiscing Easter

LaTiesha

My first Easter dress was yellow and had a fish on the collar. I had put the dress in my hope chest several years later (I received the hope chest when I was twelve – it may have been at then?) and was able to use the same dress on Jenna at eight or nine months. Before we moved to Oregon, I had given the dress to my pregnant daughter-in-law that had announced she’d be having a girl (as it turns out, all three of my sons have daughters only – at least thus far) and recently posted to my facebook cover a picture of Jenna, myself, and my granddaughter, Devin, wearing the same “fishy” dress.

Jenna

I do remember bits and pieces of different Easters from my childhood.

Patrick and me - 1970 perhaps

I don’t know when I got or felt too old for the non-Christian Easter traditions. I do remember mom had made Easter “baskets” for my brother Patrick and me. There were two Clorox bottles designed to look like rabbits. They held our Easter candy.

Clorox Easter Bunny

I remember receiving a purple duck for Easter from my grandma one years. I remember watching home videos taken at my grandma’s house several Easters before that. I remember Easter hats. I remember dying boiled eggs and searching for them as my parents had hid them the night before (usually in plain sight)

I don’t remember any specific Easters with Corey or Kayla – though I’m sure I found more joy in watching them than “celebrating” Easter myself. Somewhere along the way I discovered the true meaning of Easter does not really include eggs or jelly beans.

Roland related a time about taking the boys to an Easter egg hunt when Randy and Tony were two and three. Tony would pick up eggs and put them in his basket. Randy followed close behind and would remove the eggs from Tony’s basket and place them into his own. He said that Tony never even noticed.

Before Roland and I were married, Tony had asked if we could draw names and make baskets for each other. A few years later I sent the boys on a treasure hunt with scripture related clues from plastic eggs. I think they enjoyed it.

Jenna was eight days old on her first Easter – the day she was supposed to be born. I dressed her in a green onesie that had a small chick at the top and built in green skirt. It was too big for her, but I thought it was cute for Easter.

The day prior I had left Jenna with grandma as Pamprin and Francis had wanted to go to an Easter egg hunt at the Avery and we were allowed a two-four hour visitation so thought we’d take advantage.

The year Jenna turned three, the young men and young woman created an Easter activity for the primary. I took several pictures of several of the children hitting at the piñata.

I remember Roland hiding eggs in the backyard one year and sent her out to find them. That was before we met Isaac and Paula and Biff and Paula would take Jenna with them on Easter and she would be gone all day. There is at least one time she and Biff spent Saturday night with the family so that she would be there on Easter Sunday.

back yard in Kearns

at "grandpas" in Taylorsville

Taylorsville

Before Paula came into our lives, I do remember taking Jenna to an Easter egg hunt one year when Pamprin had stayed overnight. There are several places in Salt Lake that offer Easter egg hunts. I don’t know how we ended up at that particular location in West Valley as we were living in Kearns at the time. Ironically, we were within walking distance of said location after we had moved to West Valley.

On the Saturday before Easter, the stake in West Valley offered an activity for the primary – well, I guess families, but it felt like it had been geared more toward the primary.

This is probably from the youth/primary activity mentioned above

I don't recall Biff and Tony going to stake activities in WV

Jenna didn’t go on an egg hunt the year she turned eleven. We had come to Oregon to check out the possibilities of moving to this state. Easter was two days after her birthday. We drove the coast and took lots of pictures. It happened to be Easter day, but we didn’t celebrate the holiday on that particular day.

Tillamook Easter 2015

Pacific City Easter 2015

Newport Easter 2015

Dress was waiting for us when we got home. Grandma Lucy had made it for her

but not quite accurate on measurements. It was the only time she wore it.

Last year Easter fell on Corey’s birthday. We were still living at the rental, and Jenna had asked if we would hide eggs in the backyard, but it had been raining and so we hid the eggs inside. They were not the dyed hard boiled eggs that my mom and dad had hid years before but rather plastic eggs with treasures inside; I tried “hiding” them in plain sight.

Treasure Hunt 2017

When we were living at the rental, our situation here was still new. Jenna had more enthusiasm there than she has showed since we had moved to our current house. The holidays are hard – mostly because she has a very bad case of Peter Pan syndrome and hasn’t accepted the fact that she’s growing up. She’s not a child anymore. She hasn’t accepted that she may be too old for Easter egg hunts and other treasures. If we were in Salt Lake, she would be celebrating with either her cousins or her nieces and brothers.

cracking eggs

Overall she really does prefer this rural life compared to the crammed city life in Utah, but each holiday has been a bit harder for her than the last. She misses family members so much – particularly Anna and Gary.

She’s made friends at school, but children’s plans don’t always jive with parents plans. She also has friends who have moved. She might not admit it, but I think for the most part, outside of school and church activity, she is lonely. She had wanted to go to an activity on Saturday night, but Roland didn’t want to take her, and I can’t see to drive at night.

The weather was nice on Saturday. It really felt like a great day for holding outdoor activities. We did get away from the house – but did not engage in any underage activities. Yesterday was quite overcast. There was a thunder shower just after 6:00 pm. The sun made an appearance at 7:00. It was quite different than Saturday had been.

Here are some more pictures in no order: