Happy Easter!

It is official.....I am a loser mom. I'm not even exactly sure when it happened, but it has happened nonetheless. This morning we celebrated Easter in our household--you know, the kind involving the Easter Bunny, eggs, baskets, etc. This is a tradition that was started in my family growing up that grew out of my parent's desire to help us distinguish between the Sabbath Day and to try to keep it holy. Baskets and egg hunts were always done the Saturday before Easter. When I started having my own kids, I debated about which way to do things. Let me say, after much pondering, I do not think that Easter baskets on Sunday are inherently bad; nor do I think they prevent you from keeping the Sabbath Day holy. My decision to continue the Saturday celebration was born out of absolute necessity.....there was no way I could add Easter baskets into the mix of an already busy Sunday morning and still get our family to church on time! Later, as I served in Primary (our church's children's organization) I decided that no child needed to consume large amounts of candy and then be sent to church! So the Saturday Easter celebration has stuck.

Anyway, back to my failure as a mother.....

Each of the kids got a basket with a pair of flip flops (Savannah got some new tennies because she has plenty of flip flops), some shorts, and some small candy and coins in plastic easter eggs. They spent the morning searching for their baskets because the Easter Bunny likes to hide them somewhere in our house and the kids have to search for them! Samuel was the last one to find his this year. Tonight the plastic eggs are all washed and packed away, the baskets are back in their bin in the attic and all that is left to show for the holiday is a small amount of candy in a plastic sandwich bag on my kitchen counter. What I do not have to show is PICTURES! I did not take one picture of my children enjoying their Easter! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!! Add to that the fact that for the second year in a row, I have not colored Easter Eggs with my children. The only eggs that they had around were plastic. In my early years of motherhood, I swore I would NEVER do this! I met so many young children who had never even heard of coloring eggs and I couldn't believe parents wouldn't do it. I mean really, every child should have the chance to color Easter Eggs, right?!! And now, I am that mom.....you know, the one who is too busy to care. The one who doesn't want to deal with the mess it makes. The one who is tired of throwing away hardboiled Easter eggs because she can't figure out one more way to get the kids to eat them!

I am vowing now to be better next year, for Savannah's sake. She probably doesn't remember coloring eggs and with her penchant for creativity, she would love it! I will redeem myself from the Easter of loser mom-hood and dye eggs in the backyard on my picnic table. I WILL DO IT!!!

Tommorow we will be celebrating Easter quietly; remembering Jesus and his sacrifice as we watch conference on our computer. We will have the missionaries over for a pre-conference breakfast of waffles, bacon and sausage, and juice. We will be greatful for the technology that allows us to remain comfortably in our home and hear what the prophet and apostles have to say. Perhaps I will even remember to take a few pictures to commemorate the Easter that wasn't!