Easter

            

  As I look at the basket I purchased off a 'white elephant' table at a VFW (the money goes to cancer research), I wonder how to turn it into an Easter Basket for my husband.  Do I really want to spend an arm and leg on chocolates, jelly beans and other tasty treats?  Do I just put the basket where he will find it, include perhaps a book, envelope with some money or maybe a nice bottle of wine?

The ideas are like dice in a Yahtzee game, I shake them up in my mind and roll them out to see what I get; I come up with two different proposals.   

One would be to purchase his favorite snacks and a bag of jelly beans. The other make it a bath basket with his favorite toiletries but include a bag of jelly beans also. 

There is just something about jelly beans and Easter. They must be in the basket and NOT single pieces strewn here and there. They should be in a container or give the whole bag. Jelly beans are an Easter Basket must. 

As a child I just cared about finding jelly beans in my Easter basket and had no concern for the large coconut filled egg or the yellow peeps.  Thinking about that coconut egg, I think it was put into my basket for the eating enjoyment of my mother and step-father.  The peeps sat there until they became hard and unappetizing. I personally feel peeps are more of an adornment inside a basket than a treat (my opinion).  

But as I think about Easter, I realize it is not about the bunny or the basket; it's about the risen Lord, a time to rejoice and be glad. Somehow it seems that like Christmas being about Santa and the stocking hung by the chimney with care, Easter is becoming more about Peter Cottontail and the basket full of Easter joy.  Somewhere along the way we lost the meaning of Easter.  

As wrote my poems for the day (my challenge for National Month), once again I took episodes from my life this week. 

Thoughts swirling in my brain about Easter and what it means to me.  Besides the religious aspect which is important, 

  I always felt it was about rebirth; shedding of dark color clothing worn during the winter months; and celebrating the regrowth of the earth. 

As I look at the basket deciding on how to create something for hubby, I reflect on Easter and what it means to me.  Fondly I remember Easter Sundays of my childhood (when I lived with my grandparents).  The new outfit I wore to church, the large basket with jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, the chenille peeps and the large stuff rabbit.  Memories of coloring eggs with my Aunt Julia (who lived with them) and how I wanted to color my hair to match the eggs. 

Happy Easter to all. 

     MORE than JELLY BEANS

        Easter is more than colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and baskets of treats

      It is a solemn day as we rejoice the risen Savior

    Who gave his life for all 

       Our forty days of fasting is over

      On Easter morning 

     we put on our Sunday best outfit

       Dress in pastel colors

   Attend services of worship at  church

       The risen Lord.....reason for Easter

         Hallelujah Hallelujah 

    

       

               

                 EASTER 

 Eggs of chocolate filled with  

      peanut butter, coconut or 

              cream 

  Arranged on a bed of colored 

           imitation grass

    Surrounded by jelly beans, 

          chocolate bunnies and   

                 marshmallow peeps

        That sit in a circle like tiny 

               yellow statues 

          Every item statically placed 

                inside the basket 

              Right in the middle a 

                    large stuffed white 

                          rabbit 

  An basket filled with treats for 

           someone special 

    Brought by Peter Cottontail on 

           Easter morning