Half-Day Easter Holiday!

I love Easter. I don’t really know at what point in my life it became such a favorite holiday to me. I always liked it as a child because I got to make cute little bonnets in girl scouts with little chicks and neon colored eggs in them, and of course because it typically falls close to my birthday. It signals the coming of spring. And, my mom is known for her ultimate Easter egg hunts and overloaded baskets that will keep you stocked with candy for months. It doesn’t rank in my top 3 favorite holidays, but it’s really up there, maybe top 5, and I am ridiculously excited that work is closing early today and I can go home for the weekend, even though I am too old to have my own Easter egg hunt anymore.


I have so many wonderful memories of Easter in college. I think this partially stems from the fact that as a Catholic Jesuit college, Fordham gave us nearly a week off for Easter in addition to our normal spring break (if they didn’t already overlap), so we could celebrate all the high holy days. Despite being stuck taking an entire theology course on the passion and the death of Jesus one semester, this lovely spring vacation kept Fordham from diminishing the fun of the holiday for me. I’ve been taking a trip down Easter memory lane this morning, and I’ll share some of my memorable Easter moments from college.


There was freshman year, when my new friend Gwynne came home with me because Pittsburgh was just a little too far for a weekend. My mother was still humoring my desire not to grow up EVER at this point, so she put on the biggest, most spectacular Easter egg hunt for me and Gwynne (my sister wasn’t home this year, since her college celebrated mainly Jewish holidays). She hid over 100 eggs around our house, in genius locations, camouflaged by color in places you would never think to look. I’m not talking just set into plant pots, or on the windowsill here, they were real hiding places. It took us hours to find as many as we could, while my mom chuckled evilly watching us, and there were still straggler eggs found around the house for months. It was great fun, though I’m still a little bitter than Gwynne found more eggs than me. Counting all the ones my mom and I uncovered in the upcoming months, I think I eventually surpassed Gwynne’s total egg find.


Then there was sophomore year, when Easter fell just at the end of spring break. I arrived with my wonderful roommate of all 4 years, on Easter Sunday back to the deserted dorms. Luckily we were too exhausted and ill from a solid 7 days of non-stop sunning and partying in Acapulco to really celebrate the holiday since no one was around, and I’m pretty sure the cafeteria wasn’t open. But alas, there was an Easter miracle. Our RA had baked a bunny cake for our hall and put it in the communal kitchen. We discovered it, and had large chunks of bunny for every meal that day, starting with an entire bunny ear each. I’m pretty sure we ended up eating the whole cake by the time it was over.


Junior year, Easter fell on my 21st birthday while I was in Madrid. I celebrated with Sangria for breakfast, a couple ice cream cones for lunch, and lots of good old American fun. I saw a movie in English…I think it was Inside Man, and went to my favorite American club in the city, the Bourbon Café, where they played all my favorite music from the late 90’s. I spent the day pretending that it wasn’t already legal for me to drink in the country I had been living in for the past four months.


Senior year my sister and I were both home, and we dyed eggs and glued on the most hilarious faces to each one. They still give me a laugh every time I look at the pictures.


Since graduation, Easter has continued to be fun, but in a different way. For one, it’s an excuse to wear as many pastel colors all at once as your heart desires. I actually have an outfit that all of my friends make fun of me when I wear and call it my Easter outfit because it covers the whole rainbow of pastels (purple, yellow, orange, blue) complete with a pastel green cardi. Also, for the past 4 years, there have been two adorable little additions to my family. One of my closest cousins had twins, an adorable blond, blue eyed little boy and girl who make celebrating Easter fun in a whole new way. Last year we had their very first Easter egg hunt. I hid all the eggs, which mostly meant tossing them on the lawn, but I knew if I let my mom hide them the poor little kids would never find them!


The year before last we dyed eggs with them, and I let them dye some other body parts too, mostly their tiny hands because they were having so much fun dipping them in the dye. And I finally learned how to use those little cellophane egg wrappers. Did you know that when you dip them into boiling water that they shrink to fit the egg? They’re pretty cool, especially when they have Disney princesses on them. We’re having another egg hunt this year, and I think it will be even more fun since the kids are a little older, and will be a little better at hunting. AND it is supposed to be the most fantastic weather of the year this weekend to top it off. It’s funny how kids make holidays fun all over again when you are just a little too old to celebrate like a little kid anymore. They remind you of how much fun it used to be when you did it.