In My Easter Bonnet . . . Colorful Easter Carnage

Ok so it’s not really carnage.  Nor am I wearing a bonnet.  What defines a “bonnet” anyway?  It’s Spring!  Easter is Sunday.  I love this time of year!

Granted, it isn’t warm out, but it’s mild and there’s no snow and I made it through another Maine winter and hardly had to wear my long johns but still complained about the cold and waited patiently for this day or days like these.  Maybe not so patiently. 

Beyond finally basking in the light at the end of the tunnel, I love this time of year for so many reasons.  The crocuses are up in the yard.  The robins bob around my front lawn.  The daffodils are poking up bright green through the desolate garden beds.  Flowers will bloom!  The sun will shine!  All will be right in the world! 

And with Easter at our doorstep, the very best of it all . . . PEEPS. 

Ok, I have to admit I love peeps.  I tried chocolate bunny peeps (are they still a peep without a beak?) and almost melted into a puddle. 

I should probably get help.

This morning I worked out for two hours.  See how I try to justify my complusion?

This afternoon I ate two (so far) blue peeps.  With their little brown dot eyes . . . I couldn’t resist!

The Cadbury eggs have been around for a while, too.  I have to proudly say I have been able to stay away from them, even the caramel filled one.  And caramel is my favorite gooey sweet substance on earth.  You could put caramel on a tire and I’d eat it.  Well I guess that doesn’t hold true since --- ta da! --- I haven’t eaten a Cadbury egg.  I have had many opportunities.  I buy them for my daughter, who loves them and therefore I use it as a bribery tool to get my way.  I wish I could record an evil cackle after that.  I don’t bribe (much) I reward, but I tell her in advance what her reward will be . . .

When I was a kid, my sister and I would wake up so early on Easter morning and slither downstairs where my mom would have placed two identical (they had to be or we’d kill each other) baskets of Easter goodness. 

Growing up Catholic and therefore being forced to participate in the Lenten ritual of sacrifice I would usually have given up candy or some other innocuous item, since back then I really had no true vices from which to abstain.  I was a kid.  What do you know about sacrifice when you’re eight?

So after forty days with no candy that heaping basket was looking mighty fine.  My sister and I would sit on the floor with the baskets.  Mom and Dad would be awakened by our chatter and would haul out the camera as we dove in.  

Jelly beans by the thousands.

A pastel rainbow of wrapped chocolate things.

The aforementioned PEEPS!  (this must be where my habit developed.  So much for an innocent holy life without vices).

And always . . the star attraction . . . a huge chocolate bunny.  (Sorry but for some reason I don't have a chocolate bunny photo)  Colored candy eyes, sometimes a smart little bowtie . .  usually hollow but I didn’t know the difference.  I’d go for the ears; my sister, the feet. 

Somehow we’d survive the sugar overload in time to put on our Easter dresses that were purchased special every year for this occasion.  Sometimes scratchy.  Sometimes rough.  The Easter parade of matchy jumpers and patented leather shiny shoes still haunts me. 

Obviously this holiday has scarred me.

But now, I cope by buying my daughter the Cadbury eggs and picking up a couple of racks of Peeps, then hiding Easter eggs around the just bloomed crocuses and daffodils.

Enjoy my spring flowers and Easter candy visual overload.  I did it just for you. 

The dewey magnolia . . .

Next up:  Garden Season!!!

and it begins . . .