Thursday, March 31, 2005

What the Easter Bunny Brought

Just yesterday, my boss asked my 5 yr old son if the Easter Bunny had visited. Am told her that he got water shoes and snacks. When she asked what kind of snacks Am told her chocolate chips, frosted mini wheats(actually store brand) and cheerio(store brand too) mixed together. He was dreamy eyed and thrilled just talking about it.

My boss looked at me and said, "Gee, the Easter Bunny only brought crap to my house."

This brings up an interesting question, what does it take to make a holiday happy?
Over the years we've begun to downsize our holidays. When I was a kid Easter was a candy holiday rather than a big gift holiday. I wanted to return to that without compromising my nutritional integrity. (My poor kids, when faced with friends questioning their healthy snacks, they just roll their eyes and say, My mom's a nutritionist.")

Change like this doesn't happen overnight. We have gradually cut down until we got to this point, one present and a snack. The present has become flip flops or water shoes out of practicality. Put simply, they need new ones each year. For my daughters, its the thrill of guessing how much mom spent. (I'm raising some serious tightwads!) This years tab for beach footwear for four, $9.99 (it would have been less if I had shopped earlier for my son with the big feet!.) Actually I have to amend that, my oldest got a pair of ladybug slippers instead. She had already used a giftcard to buy her own flip flops a few weeks earlier.

The snack this year was in plastic dessert bowls that I put each child's name with indelible marker. I am delighted to report there was none of that ridiculous Easter grass that gets everywhere and jams up my vacuum. I despise that stuff.

Here's the best part, everyone was happy. What more can a parent ask for?

1 comment:

Jacq said...

I agree about Easter not being a big present holiday. My kids did get some candy. Some of which I made myself because of my youngest son's food allergies. I gave the boys each a mini hockey stick (a little over 1 foot long) and ball so they could play together. I got my daughter some spiral rollers for her hair. That was it.

This weekend I went to a local department store to get some sneakers for my youngest and I passed by the Easter stuff on sale. I got good easter toys (bubbles, stampers, etc.) for 25 cents a package with most having three to a package! Just perfect since I have three kids. Now I am set for next year! I'll just add a little chocolate and we're done.