I love Easter. The past two years have and will be new experiences for me. Last year was the first year that I didn’t trek back to Georgetown to spend an extended weekend with my family and indulge in my mom’s great cooking. Instead, I spent it with Stewart and made us an Easter dinner! I tried to make it as good as my mom’s but I ended up buying a rotisserie chicken and then making 10 millions sides. To top it all off? Stu ate his arm’s length worth of Starburst jelly beans and I made strawberry shortcake, which was DELISH!
Now I’m Los Angeles and in the land of Jews, (seriously, that sounds weird but I didn’t know any Jewish people in Texas and here they’re everywhere!), atheists and agnostics, I was wondering what I was going to do for Easter Sunday. When I was younger, I’d go to the Sunrise Service with my mom where a local church would re-enact the final days of Jesus’ life, his death, and his resurrection. It was graphic and freaked me out to watch, however I loved going every year and hearing “he has risen” as the sun rose up into the sky. It was amazing.
I haven’t decorated eggs in two years! Makes me sad. I know Easter is not about that type of stuff but I have so many great memories regarding Easter that it’s sad when you’re not fulfilling the traditions you used to do. Most of my Easters were in Arlington, Texas, because without fail Uncle Rog would be pitching against the Rangers. I remember the hotel we would stay at and how fun it was waking up on Easter morning, putting on a pretty dress, having a huge brunch and running around the hotel courtyard trying to find eggs with my cousins.
Another year, baseball took us to Toronto, Canada for Easter! Woof! All I remember from that shenanigan was a) not finding a single green vegetable, b) eating at Planet Hollywood every night, c) watching the Raptor’s game from our hotel room in the Skydome and d) hearing that a law was passed that women would run around topless. Oh, and how could I forget this?
I must have been, I don’t know, 15, when one Easter my entire family celebrated at my Uncle Rog’s house in Houston. Most of my cousins and myself were older and not really into Easter egg hunting, however our parents made sure that we’d participate with our younger siblings by enticing us: some of the eggs had candy, some quarters, some $1.00 bills, some $5.00, $10.00, $20.00 and apparently there was one egg with a $100.00 bill in it. You can bet that this got a little violent. Picture seven kids around the ages of 13-16 and three of four small children, ages seven to nine, running around like complete nutcases trying to find this $100.00 egg. It was the golden ticket! We had plenty of tactics, like finding places the other kids weren’t headed to to shaking each egg (if it sounded hollow, we kept it; if it made noise, we knew it was candy or coins). I distinctly remember after we finished searching that our parents had us give the little guys some of our stash, however we couldn’t look in the egg to see what it was before we gave it away. Once we did open all of the eggs, not a single one of us had the $100.00 egg! It was God-knows-where and after it was pronounced missing we all ran outside searching for it once more. And wouldn’t you know that the five-year-old was the one who found it?
I guess the most endearing memory I have of Easter is all of the decorations my mom would put up and my dad always talking about the Easter Chicken. My dad tends to make ups songs for every occasion — I can think of three off the top of my head right now, such as “Every light in the house is on, but nobody cares because Daddy pays the bills around here,” “Cinderelly, Cinderelly, why’s your butt so gosh darn smelly?” and the infamous Easter Chicken chant: “Bock Bock Bock BOCK! THE EASTER CHICKEN!” I’m giggling just thinking about it and how my baby brother would cry tears of frustration when my dad would sing that to him as a small child. So funny. Why the Easter Chicken, you ask? Because bunnies don’t lay eggs, do they?
So this year I’m headed to church and hopefully getting brunch with friends. I hope you all have a great weekend and a spiritual experience in one way or another!
Kirbie Johnson 