Easter Memories

This is probably the first Easter that I haven't participated in any of the Easter festivities. Since we are living away from family and friends and Wes works weekends, I would have to do them by my self and that's just not as fun. I was thinking back on Easter when I was a kid and I have to say that Easter was always one of my favorite holidays. Growing up, the Saturday before Easter was always a big day for us. In the morning, we wouldn't be allowed outside because up at my grandparents house, all the Easter eggs were being hidden. (My extended family all lived on the same street, with my grandparents at the top of the street, where the Easter egg hunt took place)
Then usually sometime around lunch time, the whole family would meet up at Grammie and Papa's house to have the big Easter egg hunt. The little kids would always go first, and then the older kids (I think the cut off was around age 12 or 13, then you had to start helping hide the eggs for the younger kids) We would all have our Easter baskets and we would go look for the real eggs and the plastic ones. A lot of the plastic ones had money in them! Usually a few coins but if we were lucky, sometimes there would be a dollar bill in them. After we had found all the eggs, we would empty our eggs and show everyone all the candy and money we got. I always wrote in my journal how much money I got that year. (April 21st 1992 I wrote that I got a bunch of candy and $6.17 from the Easter egg hunt - I was in 5th grade)
After we got all of our eggs together then we would have lunch. It was like a pot luck and I remember having little finger sandwiches on rolls and deviled eggs made by Aunt Lolly, my favorite! I would always try to eat as many as I could. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with all of the cousins. Sunday we always had our Easter baskets filled with more surprises and the baskets would always be hidden somewhere in the front room.
When my mom came to visit this weekend, she brought Wes and I a little Easter bucket with some Easter candy and that's about the extent of our Easter celebrations.
Of course now, I understand a lot more the real reason we celebrate Easter, the Savior and His Atonement and Resurrection. And how grateful I am for the knowledge and testimony I have of Him. It's through the Savior that I can be with my wonderful family forever, the family I had so much fun looking for Easter eggs with, and my own family now. I hope that I can create wonderful family traditions with my own children and of course, teach them the true reasons we celebrate all these fun holidays through out the year.