I think that Easter is one of my favorite holidays, at least it was when my children and then my grandchildren were little. Back in the day, the excitement as they waited for the Easter Bunny to come and leave little nests of treats, was palpable! How wonderful were those days when everyone was unbelievably excited for the idea of a big, white bunny who would not only bring candies but would also decorate and bring lots of hard-boiled eggs. Now, that bunny was amazing…

But, now everyone’s old enough that they are able to enjoy Easter but without the bunny being the centerpiece of the day. And I don’t know if they miss the good old days as much as I do. However, at our house, even the youngest of grandchildren love to hear about what happened before their time and we always reminisce and laugh at the antics of the little person when the bunny either came or was just moments away.

Maybe because he was the first grandchild, I have lots more stories and memories about McKinley. He also was obsessed about the big bunny and just couldn’t wait for him to come. Once, Sarah and I took him to the mall on Cape Cod and we had no idea that there would actually be an Easter Bunny there. All of us were surprised to see a big, huge person in a bunny suit sitting on a throne in the middle of the mall. And Mac, who was about two, instead of being afraid or nervous, let out a shout of joy and broke away from us and raced towards the bunny.

Once he got there, it seemed he was the first one, so he climbed up into the bunny’s lap and snuggled right down. And, within seconds, there was quite a line of children who also wanted to meet and greet this Easter icon. However, regardless of how hard we tried, we couldn’t pry that little boy off the bunny’s lap! We pried and he screamed and the bunny tried to convince him to leave by giving him lollypops and other candies, of course, to no avail. Of course, we were still older and stronger, so we finally got him off and he shrieked like we were torturing him. After we got him in our arms and we walked way down the mall, we put him down so he could walk, and you know what he did? He turned around and raced back, knocked other much bigger children out of the way and plunked himself back on the bunny’s lap, shrieking, “my bunny, my bunny!” The rest of my grandchildren never had the same opportunity because all of us older folks learned our lesson and we never gave those poor deprived children the same chance ! No mall bunny for them.

We also spent one Easter in the Cayman Islands and McKinley was thrilled to find out that the Easter Bunny was still able to find him. And after he found most of the nests that were left for him, he went upstairs to my bedroom and lo and behold, he found lots of jelly beans on my bed. “OH, look,” he yelled, “The Easter Bunny pooped jelly beams all over Nana’s bed!”

You just can’t make any of those memories up, all you can do is laugh and talk about them as everyone grows up.