Eastertime Reflections # 2

Twas the night before Easter and all through the house not a creature was stirring.... well... that's not exactly true!

Easter 1983/ Naples Florida:  Two of my three girls were anxiously awaiting the Easter Bunny's arrival.  The baby was just that - a baby - too young to know or care about such things.  I had decided that I'd do something different to make Easter morning even more special than the year before.

Who needed individual Easter baskets when I had a great big wading pool as one of the girls' Easter presents?  For days that wading pool had been "hiding" in the laundry room.  Now I had the perfect idea for an extra special Easter surprise.

In three different locations around the pool, I created nests of Easter grass - pinks, yellows, purples and greens.  In each nest, I placed the goodies (non-edibles).  For 5 year old Ali there were coloring books, crayons, sun glasses, a plush animal, hair bows and such.  For 4 year old Tara, more of the same.  And for five month old Mandy, teething rings, colorful over-sized plastic pop beads, and such.  When all was said and done, I stood back and sized up the pool.  It was definitely better than little baskets!  The girls were going to have such fun discovering it in the morning.

The next morning, I was awakened by two little girls who were not very upset.  Seems they'd gotten up and searched the house for their baskets to no avail.  "Mommy, the Easter Bunny didn't come." Ali said dejectedly.  The disappointment in her voice was palpable but my secret would surely wipe that away in a flash.

Telling them that perhaps he (the bunny) was running late and would come while we were at church, I set about making breakfast.  Then, while I cleared the dishes, I sent the girls to the laundry room to look for new roll of paper towels.  (Or so they thought.)

Before I could get to the door I heard such squeals of delight and then.... awes and ohs and whispers... Now mind you , I was fairly certain they were just thrilled to learn that the bunny had been there and left wonderful goodies.  But I didn't expect what came next!

"Look Mommy, the Easter Bunny left us new kittens!" exclaimed Ali. 

Yep!  That's right -- there in the wading pool/Easter basket was our cat and her new litter of three.  That Easter Bunny sure did leave a surprise that year!  But no one was more surprised than I !