This was one cold Easter egg hunt when Daniel was five.
Easter was one of Daniel's favorite holidays. Living out in the proverbial sticks, I have not been a big proponent of dressing them up on Easter Sunday and parading them to church. I have thought that it was more important that they knew God the entire year, and that they were mindful of who Jesus Christ is, and why we believe in Him. I am not one for window dressing. Losing someone we love changes the way we do everything, including the way we celebrate and redefine the holidays for ourselves. This year, we bought treats and supplies and took them to a friend in a nursing home. When Daniel was here, we might have been too busy to do such a thing, on the actual holiday.
Daniel's favorite part of Easter was our Easter Egg Hunt, that we would have on our front yard,usually the Saturday before Easter Sunday. I would locate my collection of plastic eggs, fill them with wrapped candy, get my baskets down from the attic, and place the eggs far and wide, and then all the kids would gather them. In later years, as some of the kids were in college, and always needed money, we put quarters in the eggs and they were grateful for the cash. This allowed us to continue the tradition for Daniel who loved the hunt, I think, more than anything else.
This year,although the lawn in neatly trimmed and the weather today is nice enough for the traditional hunt, James does not wish to do this. At 15, he feels too old for the hunt. Instead, we did another tradition I think Daniel would like. Daniel loved an omelet breakfast. Sometimes, we would have an omelet morning, if we were all going to be here. We would chop green peppers, onion, chopped tomatoes, cheese, bacon, in small quantities, and make small omelets, personalized for each person with toast. Daniel was a good cook and would custom make the omelets. His favorite was a plain cheese without onion. He would joke as he cooked. I would say, "What kind of omelet is that" and he would say, it's an "om-e-let you live" omelet ! Afterward, I gave each person a small bag of chocolate treasures, except our daughter who got a special bag with salad fixings and more appropriate sweets (as she's a Type I diabetic)
So, we let go of one Daniel tradition this year and embraced another. I hope you and your family find a way to find meaning in this Easter. Our loved ones might be gone from this plane, but we are still here.
This is Nichole Nordeman performing "Crimson" which is based on Chopin's Prelude in E Minor, Opus 28
